Three Little Words
by Pandiichan
Summary: Kurt x Mimi. He was afraid of people's reaction to his blue skin...his tail, his ears. Even of his endowment. His English was a little under par, but he could get by. One thing he was absolutely sure of, though, was that he loved her.
1. Meet Kurt

**Three** Little **Words**

**AKA:**

_Tale of Nightcrawler's First Romance_

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**AN: **Just a story I've been debating whether or not to construct. It's going to give a more in-depth feel to Kurt and Mimi, really going into their relationship, meeting, bonding, and things of that sort. WARNING: it will be more abstract than the oneshots but it will have material from the actual oneshot trilogy in it. If it comes off as a little OOC that's okay because like I said, it's delving into them, which hasn't been done before. This is mostly done of my own accord and for my own amusement but I had **Morning-Sunset **in mind while trying to string this together since she's the immediate fan of my Kurt stories that comes to mind off the top of my head. Enjoy :) and sorry, only third person will be used.

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One: **Meet Kurt**

"You ready to go, kiddo?" Carl Hoppner grinned and looked at Zeta in the mirror as he physically swiveled his torso to make sure Mimi, his daughter, had her seat belt on and could actually move despite the boxes of stuff piled between the two girls that wouldn't fit in the back of the truck, or in the bed. Zeta had a huge, infectious grin on her face that hadn't yet made its way to Mimi who was still very concerned and not too happy with the thought of leaving the Florida home she'd known for the first sixteen years of her life. Had her father not accepted a job with better pay as a company's chief mechanic they would not be moving. Had Zeta not gotten a letter inquiring her to come to the Xavier Institute, she would not be going with them, and Mimi would have more leg room. At first Mimi felt resentment—beyond her logic of things—that Zeta was going with them; but she pushed that off as being cranky she was woken up much earlier than what she was used to, and soon found it comforting that Zeta was coming with them with signed guardianship from her real parents, as she would now know at least one person in this new area that she hadn't even bothered to find the name of. A polished, white and classy Ford rolled off the concrete carport; Jay and Mimi waving to the brick house with the pink foot mat before the white steel door which hid the wooden door and keeping their eyes drawn out to either window so that the dirt road with bouncy contours could distract them while the four hour drive began its toll.

"I'm thinking of a word that starts with-" Zeta was cut off and she pouted, crossing her arms before pressing herself against her window.

"I'm not playing this again," said Mimi, flipping a page in her latest book of interest—_The Big Bad Wolf _by James Patterson—before briefly looking up at the mutant friend who was also getting cranky from the non-stop drive just hitting upon the three hour mark. The brown eyes glared weakly at her and Mimi shook her head, sending all of her curly mauve hair to one side of her neck in a lame attempt to cool down as Carl finally pulled over into a homely gas station.

"Pile out!" He announced, knowing the four of them would be happy to move their legs again. Zeta jumped out immediately, letting half of the things between them sidle over into Mimi's lap to the point where she was fighting off an umbrella and trying not to trip over two boxes in order to have her take at fresh air. Lightly miffed, the true daughter of the couple transporting them began to fix her hair as she turned sympathetic eyes to a child being dragged out of a store with tears rolling down his face.

"Aww…" Mimi whispered, her eyes turning velvet with empathy. She hated it when kids cried. Zeta heard her word hanging in the air and quirked a dark—almost black—brown eyebrow to the mother hoisting a little stuffed toy out of the boy's reach. Highly doubting anyone with an adorable kid like that could punish such a face, her eyes slowly bloated with crimson color as the pair walked by. Granted it would have been better, had she had contact with the woman, but the toy in the clenching hand was slowly descending, and the child was growing quiet. Soon the tears stopped and Zeta smiled at the swell of admiration and amazement on Mimi and Jay's face.

_These two will give the shirt off their back for somebody, and it's like the feed on niceness…_Zeta held back a laugh as Carl came out, tossing drinks to everyone, and pointing back to the truck. A chorus of complaints were roused but he just shook his head and stuffed his tall frame back into the vehicle; Jay slipped in and Zeta literally tucked Mimi under an arm, set her in the seat, and clambered over the clutter to re buckle her own seat belt. "You okay short stuff?" her infectious grin was back and Mimi pouted as she curled up against the window. They were a fair difference in height; Zeta being about seven and a half inches taller than Mimi, she was one to keep throwing the diminutive status back in the other girl's face. This hour went by quicker than the others and for that everyone was thankful; Carl pulled up to a nice two-story house constructed of brick—just like the old one, as he knew Mimi and Jay could be very picky and unanimously homesick—and they drank in the maroon lining on the regular glass pane windows, the ascending off-white steps leading to the steel white front door with a section of see through screen set before an ornately carved wooden door.

Jay jumped out happily, snatching whatever was in the floorboard at her feet and gathering it up in her arms as she zipped up the front steps to analyze the house. "Carl it's beautiful!" She began to gush as she tried to think of which plants to put where, or what could be added to the front porch in order for it to just scream hospitality and homely. "It looks just like our old house!"

"Isn't it fantastic Mims?" Zeta inquired; having grabbed the smaller stuff from the backseat as the Hoppner child took it upon herself to gather up enough of the cramping contents so that the trips would be less frequent.

"Oh exquisite." she proclaimed, Zeta was sure the girl was nodding somewhere behind the Tetris-like layout of things stacked in her arms. Stuffing the smaller boxes under the crook of her arm Zeta quickly ascended the step and began to order Mimi up them with precaution as if she were blind and being led. That was their inside joke; the blind leading the deaf. Often Mimi, for lack of nicer terms, was absent minded and thus asked for things to be repeated, the "deaf" and Zeta had naturally bad eyesight thanks to her ability, so she was the "blind". Carl unlocked the door; the fragrance of sandalwood, cinnamon, and honey rushed out into the cool breeze as they stepped in. The previous owners had been nice enough to dust so that cut Jay's work in half; Mimi and Zeta, even Jay, piled the miscellaneous items by the door to go run and explore while Carl wiped a light sweat off his brow and exited to the front porch to observe the neighborhood.

He smiled, running fingers through his mauve hair as the giggling escaped from an open window upstairs, and noticed an odd, hulking building about ten minutes away and north west of their house. "Hey Zay," he called out, not even bothering to turn towards the open window, "isn't that your school over yonder?" the mutant poked her head out of the window; half her torso being pressed against the windowsill. Her hands shaded her eyes and she squinted. Porcelain white with hints of grey, columns—perhaps, she couldn't really tell—and what seemed to be a large and expensive fountain spurting jets that made arcs of water shimmer like diamonds in the dim noon sun.

"Looks like it!" the girl called back, catching Mimi walking in to another room as she continued to dance around in the vacant space. If Zeta was to be living with them, as planned, this would either be a good spot for her room, or an art room. Mimi wouldn't object to that, they could put her piano in here, and all would be okay. Zeta had to admit though, chewing on her lip, Mimi probably felt a little out of place. Her mother and father could adapt well, already having things to work for, businesses that had employed them, and she, her mutant school…but what did Mimi have?

Besides the insane ability to get lost quicker than a needle in a haystack?

"Hey," Zeta knocked softly on her childhood friend's door, "do you want to—wow…" She was a fast worker. Mimi was unpacking boxes and pressing them flat with delicacy, storing them behind her bedroom door on a black stand-up file holder that her class binders would soon go into, once they were found. Zeta smiled, _I guess you kinda have your own plan…don't you? _instead of going with the high school flow like Zeta was doing, Mimi had upped her standards; she finished early with almost eight extra credits in Science, English, Math, and foreign languages, and was currently working on her college major. This is only one of the reasons why the petite mauve-haired girl was so distraught at the move; but her transcripts would sidle over just fine. "Anyways," Zeta picked up again after realizing she'd been at a loss of Mimi's display of unfolding her character and splaying it across the room, "I was wondering if you wanted to come and see my new school with me?"

"I really shouldn't," it was here Zeta rolled her eyes. Mimi was the type of girl who (at least she joked) freaked if her life wasn't planned out precisely every minute, and one to put work before meals. "I've got to finish unpacking and make sure I have my final essay on _Pride and Prejudice _donebefore three o' clock and sent in to my online teacher."

"It's only one o' clock!" she exclaimed, grabbing the girl by her tiny wrist, and yanking her with the momentum inspiring a stack of books to tumble to the floor. Only one was safe, _Girl in Hyacinth Blue, _and Mimi Hoppner crammed that under her arm as Zeta skipped out the door—literally dragging her—while escorting the non-mutant to her new school. When they arrived the grandeur they'd spotted from her house was intensely magnified; the mix of off-white and grey towered over them as the statues of a lions on either side of a small set of stairs watched the manicured lawn on which the sign sat.

"Oh it's adorable! Very refined…" Mimi traced the whorls of the seemingly-stone sign with the polished bronze letters and smiled. Zeta just rolled her eyes, knowing the shorter friend was basking in fields of literati challenge, a wordy heaven, as a blink committed this setting to memory. "This is, like, a standing monument to the Renaissance and Baroque all at once!" Mimi gushed happily at the architecture, Zeta, laughing as the girl stopped to watch with dinner plate-sized eyes the swaying of perennials, daffodils, primroses, roses, and baby's breath dancing in the breeze. She treated the plant life as if it was a long, live line of traversing ducks instead of rooted plants; and observed them as if it was the first time she'd come into contact with such a thing. Zeta couldn't help but giggle; it was times like this, when Mimi was so openly emotional and amazed like a child, that she had the hardest time believing this little half pint was the smartest person she knew.

"Come on!" Zeta demanded, trying to drag her friend again, knowing full well that the girl could be very stubborn and unyielding when wanting to. She recalled a brief moment at a party of one of their old friends back when they were ten where it took seven people to get the eighty-six pound girl off a chair leg and come inside. Mimi hated balloons, thanks to Sarah, and had clutched the chair leg as if it meant to keep on living. Hopefully, she wouldn't have to do that here. They were probably already counting her off points in the 'punctuality' category.

Crimson eyes flashed and Mimi's fingers slipped from the sign as Zeta tucked the weight under her arm and dragged the body in. "Welcome to the Institute…" there was a man with an almost-mane of blackish-blue hair around his face, complete with what looked like cyburns and matching hair sprouting along the edges of his arm.

"You must be Wolverine."

"Logan." he corrected her, shaking the hand that was extended to him. "This is Beast," the second member of the welcome committee livening the otherwise desolate and grand entryway was true to his name. A beast; hulking, large, muscular, blue, and looking odd with the banana-yellow jacket and silver spectacles perched on his nose. His body was covered in fur and Zeta tried not to stare too hard.

"My name's Hank McCoy, Miss Belvedere." his true name was given and Zeta grinned; hearing the intellectual tone melt in her ears.

"We've found you a brain friend." she said glancing down to the human body just beginning to move again. "She's smart, too." Zeta held Mimi up like a doll and the girl looked absolutely mystified at the sight of a large blue man who could easily punt her father across a football field like he was a dwarf. Her fingers brushed his fur and she smiled; it was like having an amble, bipedal dog…that was blue!

"If you're the type to feel a little out of place until company's concerned don't fret," said Hank as he turned and began to amble through the expensive and richly ornate Institute to give a tour. "You're not the only student to be new here. In fact, Kurt—wherever he is—was the newest one until you arrived!" Zeta just went along with the introduction, snatching up these tidbits like scraps and holding on to them. They'd be useful somehow. A beeping twittered like a song bird and Hank turned, astute to the noise, and shirked the tour duties to Logan as he briskly escaped outside.

"Oh wait," implored Mimi as she escaped from under Zeta's arm at last. It was nothing bared against the two, but she found the prospect of returning outside—to sunshine, to fresh air, and more importantly to any source of light—more enjoyable than walking in a weird place with Zeta and her newly found comrade. Beast slowed his gait and waited for the human teen to catch up; only half paying attention, more keen to the one that was outside (whether they noticed him or not). Mimi sat with Beast on an empty white bench and talked about anything that crossed their minds as Logan continued with the tour.

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Kurt knew the hologram watch was only half charged—if that—but he took delight in knowing that it had a little juice and strapped it on to sit outside. The German found the scenic outdoors with the wet, sweet fragrance of the primped lawn to be quite enjoyable. He'd just taken his usual composure on the bench he secretly called his own; pale human head with cascading indigo locks pooling over his knees until three inches afters as the torso was gently kissed by his folded knees, he saw two girls approach. He pressed his lips tightly together; growing nervous and feeling his stomach do a routine reminiscent of a tight rope dance he'd done many years ago with Margali in the circus, and watched as they dawdled in the yard. His murky blue eyes danced as the two seemed to dance and float, trace amiable tracks of grace across the Xavier land and stop here and there to drink in the beauty of the residence.

Well, only one was so interested in the Xavier lawn, and she caught his eye. Tiny like a child, petite; her hair glowed ethereal in the sun with its dark hue that captivated his eyes. Never had he seen a color like that; it turned the milk of her skin even more pure and effervescent in the sunlight casting goldenrod silk sheets upon her. "Oh it's adorable! Very refined…" He dared blink his eyes and she was attached to the sign, tracing it out. Her hands looked genteel and the fingers ever so sensitive…he wanted to comment on her, to welcome the two into the arms of the Institute but what if they found out what he really was? What if hysteria ensued at the known fact of him being a blue, spindly-sleek furred demon-apparent creature with only three digits per hand and two toes to go on his feet?

Absently, Kurt grabbed his human ears, feeling the cartilage curl like a 'C' and not point back like aerodynamic elf ears he was used to. What if they found out that he wasn't truly human? That he didn't look like them, or that he had a tail? Would they run, or scream? Laugh at him and chase him down, corner him like they did in Düsseldorf?

Then he heard the words ringing like mellow honey tones of a choir ensemble in the church, or the bells hidden in a high tower only seen through gorgeous open arcs of space, "This is, like, a standing monument to the Renaissance and Baroque all at once!" He couldn't help but grin. She had enthusiasm. And her eyes glittered in the sunshine, a green that almost put the grass to shame, had it not been for the light gray blanket hiding in the field of her grassy orbs. 'Hello' he wanted to say, but it wasn't happening; he was too insecure. They vanished inside and he could hear Logan talking to them, Beast somewhere in there, too, and Kurt was left staring pensively at the spot where she had stood.

It was as if she'd burned a spot in the ground for image to stand and stay. Hauntingly odd and exhilaratingly beautiful, the notion of her haunting him, Nightcrawler let the adrenaline and excitement of his highlight of people watching die down and become lost in the sea of familiar faces seen daily, like clockwork. Then he paused. _It must be that_, he thought, _she is new face, which is why I stare so much…both of them are new but this one is…open. The other is very focused and very determine to do what it is she has come here to do. _People waved at him, and he waved back, watching children and dogs run by, giggling, like their world would never ever go wrong, and Nightcrawler surrendered to the smile. Everything was so simple here, and no one hated him, or boxed him in alleyways to try and kill him.

The watch began to beep and Kurt panicked as blue skin exploded in small, calm seeds across his arm. He teleported from the bench into the dark recess of his room where he could hear the muffled footfalls of feet and the quite grumble of Logan passing by. The tour was almost done. Keeping on his toes for the non-mutant, Kurt took to the high arches of the ceiling, and the thin support—his walkways for when he felt sneaky—they offered, searching for Beast; he and Logan were the only two home on account for Kitty and Bobby playing around town somewhere with Jean and Scott doing the same. He found the senior mutant thumbing through a tiny book with a purple cover depicting an oil painting of a girl with her back to the person looking at her.

"It looks fascinating, doesn't it?" the two were in the entryway, but off to the side where one was not easily seen. Kurt glanced out the large window with half of a curtain drawn to the side, looking at the person taking up the bench. His latest mystery; a puzzle he would solve.

"Ja." the German nodded his head, blue skin no longer hidden by the dead device. "What is it you are holding in your hands?" he pointed one of his three fingers at the book.

"Oh it's a book," Beast seemed genuinely intrigued. "Miss Hoppner out there is contemplating on letting me borrow it. Perhaps she'll extend the proverbial leasing of this in case you want to read it, Kurt, it has a little bit to do with Germany." his intrigue was partially piqued. "This seems like my forte and it's good for the first thirty pages so far," He assured, readjusting his glasses and flipping the page again.

"Is her name? What you call her?" Kurt pointed a yellow-glove hand out the window and jabbed the pane which Mimi fit perfectly in, like an ornament. Beat squinted lightly at the vista before them.

"Of course, you were outside, weren't you?" he didn't wait for the nod. "Watching the people like usual, watching them…" Beast rambled a bit and nodded to himself as another page turned with a licked thumb guiding it, "she's our new student Zeta's non-mutant friend. Her name is Mimi, I believe."

"—And she's very open-minded." Zeta walked in to the kitchen from the conclusive tour on account of Logan smelling Kurt and wanting the two students to meet. "You should go meet her, blue; she doesn't mind what people look like, really, counts personality more than visuals…if you know what I'm getting at."

"I am Kurt," he corrected her, biting his tongue a fraction to soften the coarse tone. Already this one made his fur stand up on end. Not good. He'd give her time, "Kurt Wagner."

"Zeta Belvedere." her pale hand slung out, caught his, and jarred his arm with the casual shakes. _Has strong handshake, _Kurt couldn't help but think. "You're the German kid, right, the ex-newbie?"

"If you could call replacing of my newness with your newness that, then yes, am that."

"Wow, your sentences suck…" Zeta said that with all whole-fibered niceness and Kurt's sour expression prompted Beast to intervene before either of them could see what either mutant was truly capable of. Mimi wasn't kidding when she'd told him that Zeta could be opinionated, not afraid to say whatever came to her mind first, and very brash.

"Logan, why don't we show Miss Belvedere her room?" there was a hasty shove and Logan was retracing his steps back to the second floor. Again, Kurt soured as he watched them leave and ascend to the second floor. Although he didn't see what door they went in he turned to Beast with a scowl.

"You are putting her in room next to mine, aren't you?"

"Sorry," Beast really didn't have any control over it. The room had already been planned and her name carved on the door. Kurt turned back to the window and the question rolled off the tip of his tongue. Beast and Jean were his English teachers, and out of all the colors he'd learned, he'd not yet learned what the color of her hair was. It was the perfect example.

"Vhat is this color? Hers…" a finger pointed out the wavy silk of mauve hair grazing the bench. Beast grinned and held up his spectacles at an angle.

"Mauve, it's a color found on the purple spectrum."

"Mōv…" a smile flickered on his blue lips, showing slivers of brilliant white teeth.


	2. A Simple Prayer

**Three **Little** Words**

**AKA:**

_Tale of Nightcrawler's First Romance_

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**AN: **I've changed my mind about the "third person only rule" and found it to be more in the interest of my readers to have the story alternating first person points of view along with putting third person in there. Not only do I think it will be more entertaining, but it will help give insight to the characters :]. Thanks to _**iiEpic F A I L**_ for being my first reviewer :] and a thanks goes out to those who gave a hit or view to the story.

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Two: **A Simple Prayer**

Zeta wiped her "eye boogers" contributed to her relocation into the Charles Xavier Institute with little enthusiasm as she finally rolled out from under the harassment of sunshine that had snuck through her window, shuffling across the room in a two-sizes-too-big Vermont moose shirt that was a mix between russet and orange she opened up her door lazily to greet the world. Tripping on the loose legs of her grey, black, and white flannel pajamas she almost face-planted into another blue face suspended curiously outside her door. Immediately she jumped back, shrieked a mangled cry of 'holy shit!' and a weak morning alert to swat at the Germanic blinking banana yellow eyes at her as he easily avoided the swat, slightly moving his head. "We did not get off on any foot at all, yesterday," remembered Kurt as he finally released his mutant grip on the wall and uncoiled his tail from the carved archway signifying an entrance door, "so I vant to get off on the right foot this morning." Zeta blinked; the mechanical defense of battering someone senseless dying as her comprehension increased, the pale limb returned to her side. _We got off on the wrong foot, _the Belvedere child translated for herself, brown brows drawing together as if with the pull of a string as she thought, _so he's apologizing and we're starting over…_she nodded slowly, accepting the treaty and Kurt smiled, batting indigo eyelids and extending a yellow-gloved hand.

"Am Kurt Wagner, and you are?"

"Zeta Belvedere."

"To mark newness of friends in us, I vill do something for you. What is it I do for you?"

"What time is it?" Zeta felt zombie-like and drained. Her internal clock was no longer properly set, and her eyes burned like someone had squirt her in the face with a lemon. It was too early to be alive, how the hell could Kurt be so chipper? What was he doing up, anyways? The blue-furred mutant checked his right wrist, sighing into the air as the digital numbers came before his eyes.

"Six thirty A.M."

"Ugh…I'm going back to bed. Wake me up at ten…it's too early." moaned Zeta, trudging back towards her room with heavy footfalls of defeat. This interested Kurt, usually when anyone else in the Institute they were up, and yet here the new girl was, trekking back to bed. He easily jumped in front of her, full of curiosity.

"You no sleep," Kurt exclaimed with a bright smile, "ve stay and talk. Friends must do the talking so that they know each other and ve not fight like yesterday in entryway. Is not nice…" Zeta wanted to pull at her lower lids and scream. Oh hell no…she gives in and resolves to be at least civil with the kid that gnashed his teeth at her yesterday and then suddenly he's walking on the higher end of Up My Ass Avenue?

"Fine," she hissed out. Before any talking, however, she demanded to know the location of the nearest bathroom to freshen up. Kurt was sentenced to twenty minutes of waiting, playing with the rosary and miniature cross he'd almost forgotten he'd held in his tail at five until five thirty earlier to pray. He prayed for many things; he prayed for the X-Men to always be whole, for the new girl to find piece, for himself to be accepted, and for the non-mutant to get home safely when he saw her leave from his window last night. "Alright," Zeta emerged in a white ruffle top and bleached, knee-torn blue jeans, "what's on your mind blue?"

"Kurt." Nightcrawler reminded her, unsure whether or not she'd forgotten.

"It's a term of endearment coming from me," She gave him a swift pat on the back. "It means I like you." Zeta redefined the word to save his confused face, that way the creases were erased and ceased to exist. Kurt turned his yellow eyes to her and pursed his lips.

"I'm sorry," came the German brogue, "I do not think of you in that way." Zeta let out a howl of laughter. Wow, this kid really was lost.

"I meant as a friend…wow, you're a trip."

"Actually," Kurt had a somewhat cheeky grin on his face, "I'm human." he was given a playful shove and his tail wrapped around one of the many identical dwarf columns holding the stair railing together in order to keep himself on the upper level of the Institute. They were getting along better than expected. From six fifty to seven thirty Kurt walked around in his true form, telling Zeta all of his favorite spots in the house and why, he even ported the young female up to the rafters with him and they spent some time figuring who had the best balance. Needless to say, she soon came to appreciate his ability. It was odd, and even though Zeta wouldn't say so, the brief moment where Kurt had left her alone to go strap on his image inducer left her feeling slightly empty of the 'new companion' feeling as she called the Hoppner house just to annoy the youngest.

There was an exceptionally loud 'bamf!' sound and Zeta squealed, phone being tossed towards the ceiling and Kurt quickly, mischievously, recovered it. "Hello?" came an exhausted female voice, a sleepy inhale, and a displeased mini-groan to follow. Kurt turned the cell phone over in his palm, grinning jocosely as he put it up to his blue ear, talking back.

"Who is this? Hello!"

"What do you mean 'who is this'?! Geez…Zeta you better be happy I don't have a mutant ability 'cuz I'd wish for one to pop you in the back of your head for waking me up so early." Zeta, who almost had Kurt in a successful choke hold until he teleported out of it, scowled.

"She really is tired…" the girl murmured, trying to yank on the indigo tail swishing above her. That bastard. Kurt grabbed his tail, smiling and unfurling his legs to lounge against a diagonally set, curvaceous decoration attaching rafters to one another, a little niche for himself. He felt an insane grin split his face, this was an extremely good prank, and Mōv sounded so adorable sleepy!

"I sorry. You sleep vell, I speak to you later…" he used his best feminine and baby voice, grinning into the phone. Kurt almost felt as if he had a very brief connection with her, one that made him explode with fuzzy warmth. There was a yawn that ended in a squeak.

"You do that…" her voice went soft, a dying whisper and Kurt felt very pleased with himself. Another prank gone successful. The sudden yank on his tail caused the German to jerk and flail as he finally landed on the floor, Zeta having reached him by stretching to her full height while standing on various pieces of furniture. When he landed on the floor Zeta immediately pinned him, snatching the phone away from his three fingers.

"You dork!" she whined, giving him a light kick, "Now she's going to be a total bear and probably won't come over!"

"Is okay, we eat breakfast now, anyways…" he grasped her hand and didn't relent the hold until she'd been seated at the grand dining room table where other students had placed themselves. It was here Zeta met Bobby Drake and Kitty Pryde, even Rogue, who she got along with a little less than the other two. Kurt finished his breakfast quickly and zipped outside to partake in people watching. Zeta could have killed him for leaving her with a table full of strangers but she found some comfort that Logan was there, as she felt that they had a "level" that they connected on. _Its okay…_Zeta thought with a smug smile as the German boy hopped past her with his human guise active, _I'll get you back. I'll think of something…_

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The sunlight couldn't penetrate the shade beneath the oak but Kurt wasn't ready to go hide beneath the mossy branches just yet, he stretched out very cat-like upon the bench's surface and smiled, lips pressed into the flesh of his forearm, watching good ol' dependable Mrs. Hashim walk the clean white poodle that growled at him when they made eye contact. Suzie, a little girl that had bleach-blonde hair, always stopped by ten minutes after Mrs. Hashim to give him a daisy. Kurt had been told such an action—according to Bobby—was puppy love, but he liked to see the little child's smile, so he always took the flower. It made him wonder if Suzie ever knew she was giving a flower to a monster. Right on time, Suzie brought him a daisy from lord knows where, and skipped up to the bench to press it in his hands.

"Hi Kurt!" chirped the little girl, "how's your day?"

"Is very good Suzie, undt yours?"

"I'm okay." She rocked back and forth on her feet for a couple of minutes, wiggling her toes beneath the rim of her goldenrod flip flops to feel the grass on her toes. "I got my toenails painted, see, they're pink!" her tiny little finger pointed to the dancing parts and Kurt smiles.

"Is very pretty color on your toes. I'm happy that you liked them being painted."

"Thanks Kurt, I like them too."

"ARGH YOU FAG!" the little girl gave a gasp and—thank god she was distracted or else she would have noticed—Kurt inhumanely swiveled his giving spine to see Zeta stumbling out of the house after Bobby, her hair an icy white color and looking much like someone had dumped a flavorless snow cone on it.

"Suzie, you vould best vant to go…is very bad language as of right now." her wide eyes shrunk back to a normal size and she then nodded a him, skipping out and acting like she'd heard nothing. Kurt glowered at the two. "Stop vhat it is you are doing, now! I have innocent little girl come to visit me undt you yell horrible vords for her to hear! No! No more!" Bobby grinned, despite Zeta having him in an exceptional headlock. It was obvious to see, although he averted his eyes with much more ease than Bobby, why he was getting such a punishment. Ice could make white see-through.

"Relax Kurt, it's all good. 'Sides, a little kid shouldn't be hanging around here, anyways."

"Yeah," Zeta agreed, rolling her eyes. "Damndest thing, I might just teach her how to deal with _pervs_!" the last part was spat with hot malice as she flipped Bobby and stomped her foot to his chest. It was like a victorious Captain Morgan pose. Kurt just frowned at the still-laughing Bobby, the Kitty coming to laugh, pasted against the open doors of the Institute for support, and watched Zeta dial and whine into her cell phone again. About twenty minutes later a…non-surprised…Mimi gave Zeta solace, handing off a bag of clothes to the girl and began to shake her head at the scene, saying few words.

"Aww," Zeta hugged her friend and made sure to tighten the embrace so that water was shared between the clothes. Mimi sucked in a sharp breath of displeasure and grimaced down at the hot pink tank top. "You're just being shy, say hello. The girl over there by the door is Kitty, the guy I'm standing on is Bobby, and the guy over there with the watch on his arm is Kurt."

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Kurt's P.O.V 

I never knew Bobby was so sneaky! However, I am the only good trickster, as I can easily get away, and now he is knowing it, thanks to beating Zeta is giving him. It makes me feel good that I have mended my bitterness with her; she is turning out to be much nicer person than yesterday. After Suzie left I watch Bobby get beaten like child's toy before seeing her pop up again. Had it not been for the crunching sound of grass under shiny green bike I would have not seen her coming here; she does that to me, Mōv does, jumping out at me with her presence.

My brain cannot think of thing to say to her as she passes, here only for Zeta, and the clothes get handed off in a bag that shines in the sun. Like her eyes. I did not forget them; they did that yesterday when I watched her, shined in the sun like that. She reminds me now of Charles, she gives, and came here only to give. Seems to be very sweet girl, still very new and interesting.

"You're showing great hospitality to your fellow…um, classmates I would imagine to be the right word." said Mōv as she briefly stepped off the bike and put it up on the kick stand. All the introductions of the people, her eyes sweeping over them, it makes me want to say hello. I must; Kitty waved, and Bobby made cheesy man-smile at her and made his fingers into little fake shooting guns that fired at her. But I can't; I look at her and my brain…it cannot move. I feel very much like Captain Barbosa off Pirates of the Caribbean first movie, not moving when he has had a gunshot in him after touching now-curse-free coin.

My brain cannot remember her name. I heard Beast say it yesterday. The book flashes in my mind, I see the purple color, and then I think of her hair and get lost. Shut down like machine, barely feeling my arm fall back and forth in waving motion. "Aww," my eyes jump to Zeta and Mōv-hair's hug, I take in her face as it crinkles in sadness. Her hands pick at the shirt that is changing colors, shades, of pinkness and Zeta smiles at her. "You're just being shy, say hello. The girl over there by the door is Kitty, the guy I'm standing on—Bobby grunts and smiles up at her and strangely yet, am glad for her that she isn't wearing skirt, but blue jean like Zeta—is Bobby, and the guy over there with the watch on his arm is Kurt." my eyes narrow at Zeta, how dare she tell about my watch?!

Now mōv-hair will know that I am not human quicker! Thank you, Zeta! Ooh I get you back so soon you will not know what smacked you, I promise! Again I wave, just to be polite, and I look down at Suzie's daisy I clutch in my hand. If I give present to Mōv-hair, maybe she not care that I am not totally human, I can have another friend.

"Mōv!" walking up to the two I thrust the daisy forward with unsure-ness. Why has she not taken flower? Logan says all women love the cheep and cheesy flowers! Bobby snickers and Zeta stomps air out of him; mōv-hair simply moves over a few steps and I blink at her, trying to hide hurt, and lower the flower down. She does not want my flower…she does not like me…

She plucks a phone out of her pocket and I watch it shake in her hands. Flipping it open her gem eyes quickly scan something before returning it to her pocket. "I have to go, mom's havin' trouble operating the Dish converter for the TV. See you at the house?" a look is tossed at Zeta before mōv-hair swings a leg over her bike, turns around, and pedals off.

"She has a cute butt, too, just a little better. You sure you guys aren't related?" Bobby's cheesy smile is killed by Zeta stepping on his stomach again.

"That's my best friend you're talking about and I suggest you lay off her unless you want to lose the only half-important asset you're sure to have as a male!" Bobby makes a cringe and I just stomp back into the house. Stupid Mōv, is okay, I no want her to have my flower anyway! I will keep it instead! The rosary and cross weighs in my back pocket, where I had placed it before forgetting it, and I feel bad about thinking such thing. I do not really want to hate her, she is too quiet—like Scott—for me to hate, and if she is like Scott I can't hate her because it is Scott that I do not hate and she makes me think of him with her personality.

Gently I set the rosary wrapped around the cross on my dresser and take off the image inducer. I have had enough outside for today. From my window I can still see tiny pale dot with curtain of mōv hair riding back to a brick house away from Institute. I feel my hands wrap around invisible cross, and feel my lips move. "Lord, like everyone I vish this upon, protect her, too…" I do not want my puzzle broken before I can solve it; that would be no fun.

* * *

Third Person P.O.V

Around seven, when Zeta had finally come from a light primping session out of her room, Kurt decided to emerge from his as well. Her eyes softened and she clapped a hand on his shoulder; for a German, and for what differences they had yesterday, she felt empathetic considering the language barrier becoming apparent between her ex-enemy and her best friend. "She doesn't hate you," consoled Zeta as Kurt looked up at her, "Mimi can't understand you. She thought you were saying 'move' because you certainly weren't calling her 'Mimi'."

"How you say hair color then? Beast not correct me when I say it like 'mōv'." Her pale fingers rubbed across her chin in thought.

"Well, you're saying it like 'moe' with a 'v' on the end of it you know, I guess it's 'cuz of your accent." Zeta shrugged and proceeded to walk downstairs, listening to him follow her with hasty footsteps. He was intrigued now, she bet. Apparently he was avid to know about Mimi, and this was odd. Zeta would allow no one any easier a chance of getting to her friend, and would put up her defenses, but for the time being, she would—dare she say—play cupid. "So that makes her think 'Oh, hey, Kurt here wants me to move!' so she did. It's spelled m-a-u-v-e, so maybe that will help your pronunciation some…"

"I see. Is mu-ah-v?"

"Yeah, see, there you go! Bingo!" Kurt smiled at her and Zeta just grinned back. Persistent little foreigner.

"Vhere is it that you are going?"

"Over to Mimi's house for dinner. Her parents are expecting me so I'm heading over there for a bit."

"That is mauve-hair, yes?"

"_Mimi_, yes, _Mimi _had mauve hair."

"You stay right there!" Kurt thrust out his hands and held up a finger, running backwards and stumbling a little for lack of experience before he made it to his room. He zipped out of it with one hand cupped around something clenched in his right hand. "You give her flower, and tell her that I did not mean to stomp off, if she did see me do it. It vas nice to meet her."

"You like her." Nightcrawler found it very unnerving that Zeta could grin like Satan. He looked around as if to see whether or not she was asking the question to someone else. Is that what this thing that affected him was called? Then what was all of Bobby's earlier teasing of puppy love, what was that? Zeta laughed at the clueless and adorably innocent face of the blue-furred German.

"Relax," her grin was wide. "I won't say anything."

"You better not," She noticed his lips curl in the same nasty way they had yesterday when he corrected her. "I vill plan something horrible for you if you do!"

"I'm so scared!" Zeta mocked fear and waved her hands in the air. Kurt stuck a shockingly pink tongue out at her, which acted like a bubblegum pink beacon against his skin. "Anyways, see ya later, blue."

"Name is Kurt!" he called over the banister as she left. He rubbed his hands happily together. "Yes, I vill make something very evil and Logan-made, too. Vill make you embarrassed…or my reputation is not to be the Trickster!"


	3. A Lost Bet

**Three **Little **Words**

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**AN**: Thanks to **Morning-Sunset** and to answer your question, now that I think about it, I guess so. Honestly I didn't plan that but I just tried to use my head and imaged how one would interact with the others and I guess that's where Mimi gets her personality from, my imagination. So it's a strong possibility, yes, but it wasn't truly intended. Thanks for the compliment :].

Esel -"Ass" in German.

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Three: **A Lost Bet**

"WHAT?" exclaimed the German boy in red-faced embarrassment while Logan flipped the yellow-paged notebook over to prove he had more tallies. Thirteen to seven. Logan had won, and Nightcrawler hunched over in deflated defeat, smacking his head once upon the dining room table. "But you said purpose of the Going Fishing was to have more cards in your hand, and I do!" he swiveled the fourth of the deck in his hands to thumb through the colorful illustrations as Logan simply smiled; kicking back in his seat. He scratched his back on the chair, pointing a hand lazily to the thirteen picture-up matches on his side of the table.

"I did," nodded Logan in agreement, "but you don't have enough _matches._ You don't have enough cards that _look the same, _so I win._" _Kurt's face held the most adorable frown and Zeta just scrubbed the faint trace of orange juice from her lips as she sat placidly on the counter next to the fridge. Logan's left hand that combed through his hair was their signal, his thanks. Zeta had mouthed the cards to ask for, easily having a visual of Kurt's hand, and Logan had simply—wisely—used the informant as an advantage. Plus he'd been waiting to get back at the annoying elf for switching out all of his boxers for Kitty's underwear; which gave him a week of being stuck half out of various surfaces. This was well worth the payback, the depressed German mutant glanced flatly at the victor, resting his furry chin on the table and awaiting his sentence.

Kurt went to strap on his image inducer to sulk outside when Logan's claws suddenly pierced the material and delicately guided the dangling machine into his hands. "Sorry bub," Logan smiled at the miffed German and grasped the image inducer. "I know what I want you to do now, seeing as how you lost our bet. You have to walk around town—including downtown—the whole day without your image inducer."

"In front of all the people?"

"Every person in town…"

"Esel!" spat the German as he stomped his foot and abruptly stood up. Logan grinned in a Cheshire manner while Zeta began—voluntarily—washing the dishes to keep out of the heat created by Logan simply waving the German off out the door.

"You're right…" Logan tossed her a look, "that does make you feel good."

"Told you so." a clean cup was set upside down on a prong to dry out in the growing sunlight, a pale smile stretching and glistening beneath the rays.

* * *

"You're up early…" Mimi Hoppner froze like she'd been caught red-handed in thievery with elongated thumbtacks in her mouth, an innocent paper pressed tightly against the wall. Jay smiled, looking at the clueless daughter of hers who thought so strategically as to have back up tacks, should her first one not make the mark and fall away from the paper. "Online classes?" assumed the mother, watching with interest the spectacle confronting the youngest who was in no way tool-oriented unless helping her father; third tack was a charm. A red highlighter was uncapped and a line was drawn through an assignment, the girl capped it and pushed back to land in her rolling chair which propelled her to her desk where she began to avidly type away until mouse clicks took over. After the techno managing stopped Mimi turned to her mother; smiling brightly and with a pair of slim, black, almost-oval shaped glasses over her green eyes since she'd yet to put her contacts in, not really being awake and in the working mood.

"Yep," she chirped, shutting down a couple of computer windows. "Thirteen page essay on how circuses were a prevalent example of structure and led to the ideals of the businesses we know now. Basically a comparison paper."

"Yeah…okay then…" Jay wouldn't lie, she was very happy she'd graduated BEFORE all of the technology crashed like a tidal wave upon the newer generations. It made work simpler and certainly provided less stress than having to do online classes seemed to do.

"Well, if you don't mind, my Little Einstein, would you go to the store before the crowds get busy and pick up some things?"

"Sure, do I need to make a list?"

"No, hun, it's already on the counter. Thanks dear."

"Not a problem." Mimi saluted her mother who grinned and popped her bra strap in response as a teasing joke between them. Jay had raised three girls, plus some children of her sister's when times got too tough for the interconnected families; some of the antics were bound to rub off on her. Her daughter's red face brought her a smile of utter glee and the blond skipped into the kitchen, double checking the cleanliness factor before handing Mimi four folded twenties to cover the bill. The girl sighed and shouldered the 'Go Green' Wall-E Walmart bag and grabbed the list from the table; waving as she walked out the door and four blocks to the right, taking a left, and entering the local grocery mart. "Milk, cheese, chicken, rice, cereal…" she turned the list over to find it stretching from the front of the page to halfway down the back and sighed; navigating the new store for two hours before collecting everything.

She ended up walking out with approximately five bags, all packed full and reinforced with two or three extra plastic bags, plus the Publix bag that was holding the more durable objects. Mimi found, to her surprise, that people suddenly clogged the streets quite nicely and there was hardly getting through any of the crowds. "Excuse me," she'd say, not soon after a "sorry," would follow it. Colliding with a broad man at least of six foot tall her glanced down at her and smiled, mistaking her "excuse me" for "can I see?" and dragged her into the slim empty pocket of space between himself and the invisible velvet ropes keeping everyone at bay.

* * *

Mimi's P.O.V 

"I'm sorry," geez, where did all of these people come from? It was like the grocery became a hotspot all of a sudden, and now I'm having to suck in everything I have to make it through two centimeters of space! Okay, well, not really but it was a pretty tight squeeze. "Excuse me…" I got past a random lady and her little boy when his finger suddenly flew up in a point at something beyond me and I almost lost a single pack of Slim Jims dad would have definitely made me come back to look for; he's, like, addicted to those things. Whatever was making such a spectacle ended up making me fight more pointing fingers, ducking out of people's crookedly-balanced way to try and reach clear sidewalk I could see about four meters away from me.

"Excuse me!" I exclaimed to this tall guy in front of me, he was at least half a head taller than those who I was around and just smiled at me, and I guessed we'd smacked each other kind of hard. Next thing I know he was dragging me to stand in front of him, not across to escape into freedom like I wanted. Then came my—for lack of better terminology—holy cow moment. There was a guy, walking calmly down the street, waving a tiny bit (kinda reminded me of a beauty queen in the floats, you know, the closed hand, cupped back and forth wave?) to the little ones and smiling at the rest of us. He was blue!

It's either a fantastic costume, or it's real. He reminded me of Kurt, though, one of the guys I'd met yesterday, with the way his hair was styled. It reminded me of him so well; the dark color, a blackish-indigo hue, and the exact style. My cheeks flushed, due to the proximity of others, them moving, and then thinking of what occurred last night at the dinner table with Zeta over from her new school. I could still hear her tease me as we cleaned the dishes, after she'd shown me this cute little daisy that had been dented in its stem with slightly beaten petals, _"He likes you," _she said (I found that pretty unbelievable, usually guys are looking at her instead of me), _"and he felt bad about what happened when you dropped off those clothes for me so he wanted you to have this." _of course, she laughed at the blush on my face at the time, but that's expected. My fingers dipped into my jeans pocket; absently I was already beginning to carry the daisy around with me like a charm, a special something that I finally had.

Was that Kurt? He went to Zeta's school, so obviously he was a mutant…I mean, gifted. Is this what he looks like? "I have to go," continuing to murmur something about not wanting to spoil groceries the guy backed up as much as he could before letting me squeeze by. "Ey lass," the apparent Irishman behind me simply pointed and that was the time window I had before falling forward—almost off the sidewalk but no one has to know that, well, Zeta doesn't—and the blue guy's holding me.

In his arms, like a cheesy film. Only a fraction of how some girls dream to be touched when taken by yearnings of romance. I didn't say anything—didn't really know what TO say—but I didn't think I had to; he stayed there for a minute, holding me, and then I feel an almost-silky whisper of fur ghost down to my face. _Ohmigosh, he's going to kiss me. This guy is seriously going to kiss someone he's never even—wow…_ it really spun my head around, like a great country fair ride pitting you against G forces; I didn't even feel like I was balanced, or attached to the Earth, for that matter. He pulled away and set me back up on my feet, briefly locking eyes with mine—I was looking at the ground, but I had that feeling you get whenever people stare at you and you KNOW they're staring—and then walking away, leaving the word "Mōv" tickling my left ear.

I was let through the crowd, gawked at just as he was, like he'd past whatever mystifying trait onto me, and soon got to a clearer section of the street and walked home with a red face. My first kiss! But what the heck was "Mōv"? _Wait a minute…that's that little word thingy Kurt said yesterday when we were outside,_ I thought, _oh junk. _Hopefully someone has written a book on 'How to Tell Your Family a Mutant Just Might Like You', because I need to read it.

Honestly, I don't think mom would mind, you know, if Kurt really does like me (which I don't see how he can because we just met yesterday…and I wouldn't like to believe that I'm a "love at first sight" person, it doesn't seem to logical, but I guess it can happen), dad is who I'm worried about. Carl Hoppner isn't exactly one hundred percent anti-mutant, but I don't think he'd like the idea of a blue mutant coming into his house asking for his daughter. Especially when said mutant has a prehensile tail that could evoke him screaming 'Satan! Satan!' and trying to exorcise Mister Blue. Somehow, miraculously, with my dazed mind I made it back to the house; dumped the leftover change that had been wadded up at the bottom of my pocket onto the counter and took all of our necessities out of their plastic cages.

"Baby, are you okay?" I blink up at my mom who just pulled her silver reading glasses off her nose, coming from the living room.

"Yeah, why?" shrugging I give her a brief and odd look before resuming whatever it was that my body was doing before she interrupted me. Denial, one of the best gifts God intentionally or unintentionally gave to man. Gotta love it.

"You're trying to put chips in the fridge." the arm of her glasses points to the Doritos Cool Ranch in my hand. I shake my head, smile with a small laugh and walk to the pantry and push them into an available niche.

"I've…" quick, think of something to keep her from questioning you! "…been away from the computer too long, I'm going to go do a couple more assignments, okay?"

"Alright," I hear a laugh that tells me I'm off the hook until something jogs her memory. Thank you, Jesus. "Dinner's in a few hours."

"Holler if you need me!" walking upstairs I physically brush non-existent sweat from my forehead and shut my bedroom door. My thoughts turn to the secret journal tucked between my mattress and the frame, and I write a little bit about what happened to me today. If anything, this will keep me sane, all my dark little secrets tucked away forever.

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Third Person P.O.V

When Kurt arrived into the dining room where Logan and Zeta had spent his entire adventure time playing various card games the mutant sniffed and wrinkled his nose on instinct. "What is it?" asked Zeta lazily flipping over a four of spades to take Logan's two of clubs in their third game of war. The man folded his arms across his chest, scratched his chest a little, and sniffed again, checking his nose. He continued to rock on the last two legs of the chair and leave Zeta in suspense until she yanked at a couple of hairs on his right arm. Almost tipping over out of the chair there was just enough time for Logan to declare 'perfume!' while flailing for dear life and catching the table as a crutch.

An insane, impish grin overcame her pale oval face and her brown eyes danced. "Perfume?" she parroted, swiveling to eye Kurt with a smug smirk and throw her legs up on the counter, effectively squashing the hand that was going to grab her five of hearts with a king of hearts. Kurt began to back out of the room, and Logan soon caught on. It had something to do with the earlier bet.

"What?" said the German defensively, "I valk through town like you ask."

"Smell him again, what's the perfume smell like?" questioned Zeta, now standing up and proceeding to circle Kurt and jumble his nerves a bit. Logan took another whiff.

"Vanilla." he remarked in displeasure. The alias for Wolverine was not inclined to Vanilla, only strawberry or chocolate. And the fact that _Nightcrawler_, a guy, smelled like vanilla made it even worse. The fact that his senses were sharp enough to smell the otherwise faint aroma at all was the worst of all! They listened to a particularly loud 'bamf!' fill the room and Logan shot Zeta a look of inquiry as the cogs of her brain whirled full speed at maximum pace.

"He likes her…Mimi is the only girl I know to wear vanilla perfume. If he's not saying anything to her, we'll just have to put him in a position to where he'll be forced to say something!"

"You're going to prank Kurt?"

"Now, now," chided the mutant female, "prank is such a demeaning word. Think of it as unwanted help. Besides, you still want to get him back even better for doing whatever he did with your underwear, right?"

"I'll kill Bobby for not keeping his mouth shut." the hand slammed on the table and the metallic sounds of unsheathed claws were ignored. Zeta began to pace in an intricate and crooked circle with a smile on her face.

"We're about to get Kurt back so nicely…" she gave a content squeal and clapped her hands. Deliberately, she ruffled Logan's hair in glee at her own ideas. "I'll get Mimi over here, tonight, and I'll tell you what I come up with in the morning." Kitty walked in and they both assumed a silent composure.

"If he doesn't get you back first," said the girl, proving to have bobbed in and out of the surfaces to hear the private conversation. "Look out if you go to the bathroom, I think he's been stealing toilet paper again…"

* * *

There was a knock on the Hoppner front door and Jay pulled it open, relaxed and in her nighttime robe, ready for sleep. "BUSTED!"

"AAHH!"

"Oh, hey Jay, where's Mims? Sorry about that, by the way…" Jay Hoppner released the clutch on her breast and gave a light glare to the might-as-well-be-our-own-daughter girl.

"MOM!" a set of tiny feet thundered down the stairs sloppily. "Mom, I heard a scream! Are you alright?!"

"Finally," exhaled Zeta with an enormous smile on her face, borderline cheeky grin. "BUSTED!" she zipped up to the girl then bypassed her, going half way up the stairs and then stopping to lean over the banister. "I'm borrowing your daughter for the night!"

"As long as it's okay with your little school owner!" Zeta was already throwing things in a bag for Mimi. Mimi quickly scuttled to the room, making sure to sneak her diary from her hiding place and to tuck it under her shirt to smuggle it out of the house as Zeta stumbled from the bathroom with a bulky black karate bag flung over her shoulder.

"Go on, go give them a kiss." Mimi was shoved towards the stairs as Zeta patted her back solidly. "We have much to talk about."


	4. Liebling: Darling

**Three **Little** Words**

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**AN: **Thanks again to those of you who are reviewing. I don't want to mention names just in case I publish this before one of my two usuals do not review, but you know who you are! :] I'm super excited about this story and am so happy to actually be continuing it. Thank you for the eighty-six hits and sixty-eight visitors to the story thus far! Love you all!

Four: **Liebling (Darling)**

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Kurt's P.O.V

Being only three A.M I can only begin to think that the thundering of the storm woke her like it did me, when I first come here to meet everyone, especially Storm, who usually makes the storms over the Institute. This one, however, she did not, it was natural, but just as loud. Lightning raked the sky in bright, blinding lines and I watched them from my room, fur bristling at the sounds until I combed it back down to watch it all happen again. Ice crept under my doorway and glistened brilliant-like, like diamond when lightning touched down enough to make it visible; Bobby was sleep-freezing again while he walked around the house in a dead slumber. _Is good praying weather…_praying always helps me relax, I hopped across the clean floor of the large room and grab the cross twined in rosary from the dresser to clutch it in my hand like I fear of losing it, and sat cuddled in my little spot on the bed.

"To the Lord, our Father, I pray that-"lightning was very rude and thunder growled over my head, shaking the light hanging from my ceiling I waited until it was over (yes, I looked around like people trying to avoid killer in horror movie, as I do not like loud noises and want them to go away) to continue, "we may all find peace in this loud weather you have made for us today. I pray that I can get back to sleep and—"this time I stopped by myself, there is a tiny noise happening outside my door. It dies away when the weather came roaring back in its loudness, but then it, too, comes back. Soft and low, a whimper, like from frightened little animal. Or person…Zeta did bring Mōv over. Kitty tell me that after I had finished dinner, and she give me weird smile with the message, too.

There she was, much smaller now than ever, squished against the banister. Her fingers curled over her ears; she did not like the loud noises either, and a light hiss came from her as the lightning bounced off…glasses? This was Mōv? She does look most adorable with glasses; they give you more to look at when seeing her eyes. Even here, the banisters are iced, and Bobby must have already been by here or they would not be so, I walked lightly as possibly across slippery surface, giving myself away to her.

She looks at me with big green eyes and backs up a step or two like the people on TV do when they see the monster coming, I see her hand slide along the ice and it sparks in my brain. Ice will make her fall. The only thing I could think to do was to rush over there and grab her wrist with my tail through the space between upholding pillars. "It's you," her voice trembles like her dancing eyes and I transfer the tiny hand from my tail to my own hand to bring her back over the banister. With tail wrapped around her like little blanket I hold her to my chest, carefully getting her and I from slippery stairs, trying to not think of what happened on the street today.

I was stupid then, at time like that, but I was happy. Perhaps I should have prayed to God to forgive me for that sin. I stole a kiss from Mōv, and even worse, I make her share kiss with a monster. Setting her down she continued to look at me with big and bright eyes, a scared little child in them, and I stand there, staring back, wondering what she thinks of me. I know that I think I am stupid for acting like I did on street today, and feel stupid for holding her to me longer than getting us of icy part of stairs took.

"You said it again," on the verge of teleporting I stopped and looked at her, the tiny one hugging herself and trying to ignore the sounds of storm around us.

"Said vhat?"

"Mōv, it's, like, my new name from you I guess…do you not know my real name?"

"No," I scratch the back of my head, "I do know it's just that…" how do you explain brain that flat lines to the person who makes it flat line? "In Germany, it snows," this was really bad relation but was only thing I could think of, "and when you step on it, it goes 'smush!' which is how brain is going now." she cocked her head crookedly and stared at me. Her lips press together, about to say something, and then unclench and go relaxed, plush. That is sin, I realize, her lips are sin. They make me sin, and I feel ashamed to admit I liked it.

I feel bad to have enjoyed making her kiss a monster, someone who scares people. Someone who isn't like her by nature. More than sin, her lips are also sweet, like honey. Something drops from her fingers and I catch it in my tail, not even thinking as I teleport away from her. The only thing I am sure of, though, safe in my room, is that I do like honey.

I will taste honey again, and I will sin.

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(Still Kurt's P.O.V)

Two hours later, at five A.M., I begin working on counter trap to the one Kitty told me about coming from Zeta and Logan. They are odd and wonderful pair, I do agree with Kitty on that, so my trap will help them be together, whether they like it or not. Keeping "Trickster" name, I teleport often between my room where I had tucked some rolls of toilet paper, tissue paper, and other items and begin stringing them throughout the kitchen area. Only putting it where they will likely sit later this morning it was no use hiding it, but I made part of fishing lure the trigger because you cannot see it, and continued to wind it up and around chairs until it would haul them both up, together, and tangle them like hair knot. With enough time left to do my regular thirty minutes of prayer, I teleport out of the kitchen and creep to the rafters with the rosary in my hand; it will be a day well worth praying for.

Praying to not get killed, praying to have a good laugh, praying to not have Logan slice me to pieces, praying for prank to not backfire, and, praying for a kiss. Teleporting back to put the cross and rosary up before Kitty and the others had breakfast I realized what my tail had taken from her. A pink book, with her name on the front, curiously, I opened it up. Inside pressed pages I could smell her vanilla perfume, and I smiled tiny smile before flipping through a few pages of her decent hand writing to find daisy petals falling at my feet. She kept my daisy, she does like me! "And vhat is dis?" seeing a brief mention of 'some guy' I did read on, feeling little guilt and very excited.

_When it all happened, faster than I could blink, my head was suddenly a tilt-a-whirl! Kurt was kissing me and he just came out of nowhere. It was odd to feel furry lips pressed up against mine…but as odd and twisted as it was…it felt __**right**__;_ _maybe it was the spur of the moment, but it felt honest. Good. Done by faith…_

As of right now that was the only thing written there but that was more than enough to make me smile! She feels as I do, perhaps, minus the brain mush. Is very wonderful! "Come on and eat breakfast with us…" their female voices passed by my room.

"I can't!" Mimi exclaimed, "I can't find it, I have no idea where it is! I was writing in it while it was storming and I guess I laid it down somewhere before I went to sleep, I need to find it!"

"Just chill," soothed Zeta, "we'll eat first and then find it." They went to the kitchen. I teleported back into Zeta's room and laid the diary softly on the bed, very content and walked to breakfast to eat as quickly as possible. She eats like little bird, picking here and there, and I smile; brushing crumbs off my face to grab the image inducer from my room before joining her outside where Beast had just returned book. Zeta makes Mimi braid her hair as I sit on the bench, watching the book with eager eyes. She will teach me more English, I know she will, is nice person, like Scott.

Logan pestered Zeta about the dishes and I smiled, porting inside and hiding in the higher spots of the kitchen. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…BOOM! They scream and I disappear outside to drag Mimi back inside to show them tangled together and very displeased. "You vill come and see," I told her, "I set up trap in kitchen and Zeta and Logan caught it!" we teleported into the kitchen.

"Stepped right into it, you mean." I nodded, smiling and waving to the couple. They are cute, no?

"Is impossible to trick Kurt Wagner without payback coming!"

Zeta began to wiggle lose, or try to, as she struggled around, and rocked the little cocoon of trickery. "For right now," said the crimson-eyed girl raging wildly, "I'll say that was a decent sentence for you, German boy." I grinned at them, waving and giving little words back as I led Mimi back outside to the oak tree where she and Zeta sat earlier before, the book in her tiny hands now. She read me part of the book I now know to be called _Girl in Hyacinth Blue _and answered my questions in very gentle voice. Surprisingly, she was not mad for my interruptions. My head had pressed lightly into her shoulder, in my human form it was pale oval-shaped face with lightly squared chin against her tiny shoulder, and I smiled very small and delicate smile as the scent of her perfume brushed against my nose.

Vanilla.

Delicious.

Sweet sin.

Zeta emerged like Monster from the Sea, with her trailing mess of my prank clinging to her. Time to run. I grab her soft hand and take her around Logan, almost crashing with him, spitting German as we run into dark safety of my room. The image inducer turns off, is easier to hide a dark blue self than a pale self, and I cover her mouth after her startle cry. "Is need be quiet, ja? They find us and result will not be beautiful!" I warned her, jumping and backing up, putting tiny one behind me as Zeta storms in with angry red eyes; snatching my watch off of me.

"Nein!" Her body presses in a fall, to my hands and I protect her. Makes me feel like Captain Jack Sparrow holding Elizabeth Swann. The crimson eyes of Zeta's drag me down, too, only slower, and Logan wraps us up in bed sheet to put in hammock. We are very close now and thank you for blue skin, Lord, because my cheeks are fire right now. I clutch invisible rosary, hands curled away from her warm body, praying she can't hear my beating heart going crazy in my body.

"Hands are not pervert," I blink my eyes at her, and the green ones stay glued to mine. Her eyes are so pretty, but I must explain myself. We are in closeness, and I do not want to make her hate me, like so many already do. "closeness is making hands have closeness which is not vhat I vant in case closeness makes you feel not well…" _lead me not into temptation…_the phrase crosses my mind, but is far too late to beg for that. I am already here, and I enjoy it, her forehead touches mine and I relax at the smile she gives, her eyes show she understand me.

"I realize this, it's due to circumstance." her vocabulary, for now, may be better than my own, but I know she forgives me. We talked about learning English and German language, my language she wants to try and speak, after small silence. The idea of her saying words from my native land excites me; she will try to continue and understand me. That's all I want, someone to understand me, to not hate me or run away screaming. I will get to see her lips move, and am quickly preparing to sin against the betterment of what I know; but perhaps God will see it not as sin but plan, his plan.

"'Ja' is German way of saying 'yes. Agreeing." trying to straighten to look like teacher as Jean and Beast will do when I go to learn English and they stand in front of me, our faces brush. Okay, so I cannot be straight and tall and teacher-like with bed sheet tied around us, I did try.

"What was it you said on the stairs? Hare-huff…or, you know, that word…" I laugh, honest laugh, laugh that almost make you cry. Those are the good laughs. Her explanation and tried saying of 'herauf' was very funny, and absolutely wrong.

"Is sorry, but you say German as bad as my English. Is okay, we fix. _Herauf _means 'up' like we go up stairs of Institute to be here." She nods, eyes sparking. Mimi understands. Absorbs it like Rogue does powers, and is interesting thing to see, her face light like that. She is girl, child, learner, genius, and adorable rolled into one thing with many hilarious faces.

"Oh okay, what else can you teach me?"

"Okay, you will repeat when finished. Küssen Sie mich?" plan is about to go off without the hitch! I do feel very sneaky now, like criminal. She knows nothing…or is that she 'suspect' nothing? I do mean to use very clever movie line that criminals do use when tricking someone, that is right one?

"Küssen sie mich?" I see concern and unsure-ness on her face. She does calculator face like Beast and I grin; sinning as I taste sweet honey again. Her cheeks are red like Jean's hair and I pull back, listening to her stammer and demand of me what it is that I make her say. Is nothing bad. Mimi did ask me to be teaching her German, and I am, but am only teaching her crafty thing to get me kiss; very criminal-sneaky like, no?

"I teach you 'kiss me'." is all I say, well, I say something after it but I really focus on that piece of time. It was the best one. We kiss more in the hammock, nothing wrong with it, and soon, she is asleep. She does look adorable when she sleep, looks like child. Mien engel.

Some time later, I feel hand on my cheek and wake to see her looking at me; I grin at her. My lips tingle with the taste of hers. "So we will be doing the dating now?"

"I wouldn't have let you kiss me that much if I wasn't going to let you, if you wanted to at all. Which, in logic, you wouldn't have kissed me that much if you didn't want to." I look at her, sniffing her lightly. No, no Beast smell, but perhaps she is secret relative. After all, I only hear such confusing sentence from him.

"So…" she laughs at my face as we find out Logan has so nicely finished tearing the helpless bed sheet and we are free. "That means yes?"

"Why not?"

"Vonderful! Come, I show you some things I like!" I took her into the living room to shuffle through movies Bobby had rented until I pull out Pirates of the Caribbean I. "Am very big fan of pirate things, and would like to share them with you, if you like…"

"A movie sounds wonderful." We sat together on the big wrap-around couch and I held her while the movie passed. Colorful shades danced across our faces and right when little one goes to half-sleeping on my shoulder Zeta weasels her face in between ours.

"What are you doing?" Mimi jumps and Zeta grins happily at us. She was happy to spoil the togetherness quiet moment. "Your 'rents texted me; they're going to explore a bar and sample some wines. They promised not to drink too much, though."

"Fantastic." Mimi replied dryly with her sarcasm. I smiled.

"You're welcome," Zeta whispered in my right ear as she walked away. Smiling again I give her a half wave and loop my tail around her lower legs as we watch the movie. I love my liebling, and of course, from now, I must love Zeta for giving her to me.

"I promise," I turn to Mimi and watch her smile as she blink sleepily at movie, "we go and do vhatever you vant tomorrow. Yes?"

"How about meeting my parents?"

As you Americans say, damn.


	5. Confirmations and Family Time

**Three **Little** Words**

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**AN: **Thanks for reading this you guys, really, thanks so much. I just want you to know that my stories had a total of 1,500 hits and then some. Most of those were—in a lump sum—contributed by this story and my _The Last Great Steal _(Remy LeBeau) story. So, thank you very much :)

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Five: **Confirmations and Family Time**

…_His lips receded and despite how quickly he'd come upon me with the wordless smooch, he was leaving much slower. Part of me didn't want him to leave, the other half of me knew it was okay—at least he'd be safe returning to that school. My lips were numb and tingly, live with bubbling and I inhaled sharply. Bad thing to admit, but at the age of sixteen, that was my first kiss ever. Conservatism was to blame for that, but it was amazing…either that or I'd lucked out and found me a good smoocher on what could be the first relationship I'll ever have._

_At first I'd looked at him funny because he was blue, and fuzzy, almost like a bipedal teddy bear with a slinky devil's tail and three fingers to each hand (all I knew was the fact that he was a mutant) that freaked me out. For a moment my whole body tensed, pre-kiss, and I thought horrible scenarios like being bitten into, killed, or dragged off…you know, the scary cliché TV stuff…but no, a harmless kiss. Kurt really wasn't a bad person, with what little time I could briefly observe him with while tending to Zeta on my little-less-than-frequent trips to her new school I could gather that much of him. Now I have an adequate reason to visit and ask him what in the world the randomness of it all was for! Sheesh talk about giving a girl a heart attack!_

_Arg…well, it's a good thing I can't really –as I normally can do—put anything else together while pondering this because apparently I am being "summoned" as I like to call it. "Lady Zeta" calls (Insert sarcastic 'whoop-de-doo!' here)_

_Yours Truly, _

_Mimi._

_Tap…Tap…THWACK! _What had been little pebbles first hurled at Mimi's upstairs bedroom window quickly turned to a meaty stick bouncing off the underside of the frame, causing the girl to turn her dark head and shut the diary as an impulse. Stowing it beneath her mattress she then jimmied open the window with her tiny arms, emerging out of it to see Zeta waving and talking some indistinct gibberish from the lawn below. "What?" called the Hoppner child to Zeta in confusion, watching her friend cup her hands around her mouth and suck in air for bellowing through her contacts. Her eyebrows rose in surprise.

Kurt was too scared to come over and meet her parents? But why? He was nice enough to her, but based on what she'd seen and her own assumptions, she could only pin insecurity as his doubt and hesitation for following through with the earlier plan. "Is it okay if I come over? Maybe he'll come over if I'm with him."

"That's hot!" reached her ears and Mimi rolled her eyes, breezing away from the window and walking downstairs to greet her friend. Thankfully, her parents didn't mind the leave, and watched the two girls walk away to the Institute over yonder. In about twenty minutes she and Zeta walked through the polished double doors to listen to the dull chatter of life emitting from the kitchen. Chatting from Kitty mixed with Jean's, and an in-disguise Kurt broke away from Scott's buddy pep-talk that Logan was hardly enforcing; Beast, Bobby, and Storm taking pleasure in picking at their food while Rogue occasionally pointed her fork at Logan. "Kurt, I brought you someone." Zeta grinned at the German, screwing up his blue, half-back-apparent locks before taking to cleaning the dishes.

"Really?" he curiously peered to the entrance of the kitchen and his face exploded with light and excitement. "You come to see me?" He scuttled over to Mimi, his explosive smile and cherry red cheeks a sight to behold as he gave her a warm hug. How he did relish the simple affection people often refused the mutants; and the tiny body in his arms was more than enough tender flesh to sate his yearning for love.

"I did," smiled Mimi, patting his cheek and returning the hug. "I heard you had a problem and I wanted to help you…"

"Your family…" Kurt looked down at the floor and rubbed the back of his neck uneasily. He would have stared longer; encouraged by the emerald eyes boring into him, but the soft hand on his left cheek brought his face up. She was his angel, and she was extending her hand to help him. It was like the divine words of Archangel Gabriel to mankind; but her motions on his skin were much better. Much holier, in his brain.

"Vhat if I am not good enough for them? Vhat if they do not vant me dating you? Or they think that I am a monster?"

"It doesn't matter what they think," assured Mimi with a soft smile, tracing the hologram as it faded to watch his blue fur part in wake of the circles, "I like you anyways." There was a free-running escapee sigh and Kurt sucked on his lower lip.

"Okay," he turned his dancing—human again—murky-colored eyes to her. "I go vith you."

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Mimi's P.O.V

"Mom, Dad," pulling Kurt behind me and finally into the house I look at my two authority figures looming over us, "this is Kurt." they only see the human boy with five fingers, pale skin, and accenting—cute—dark mop of hair; not the blue boy who kissed me on the street that actually has two toes per foot, three fingers on each hand, and the prehensile devil-like tail that saved me from what would have been a bad fall. Dad gives him the sentential hard look, like a miniature judgment day, and I wince for him, my poor guy, before giving his hand two squeezes. My 'you'll be okay, hun' signal to him. He grips my hand back, returning the signal, and secretly tapping my palm with his two true fuzzy fingers while looking curiously at my father. The honey-colored eyes gaze at him as if he's never seen another human being, and he refuses to let go of my hand until mom calls me over to help perform the finish on her famous Peach Cobbler while Dad begins the interrogation.

Thank GOD he was never a police man! All the same, though, Kurt seems to want to pee himself. With my hands focused on the cobbler, the golden brown dessert diffusing the scent of peaches across the kitchen, my eyes watch the boy drum his legs and only answer honestly to my father's countless questions. One question, asking him why he attends the Institute, catches my ear and my whole world unravels, shooting him the strongest 'I am appalled!' face as my mother hisses, makes threatening physical gestures, and brandishes a mitten at him. "_Dad_! Don't be rude!" Sheesh, I can never bring another boyfriend—which I don't think will happen anyways—over ever again! Kurt turns off the image inducer, holo-watch, whatever it is, and suddenly mom squeals excitedly (like me, one of her favorite colors is blue), the defenseless mitten being flung in the air and I catch it before it lands on the cobbler.

Mouthing a 'sorry' to the X-Men getting his cheeks pulled after a hug, and a fiery glare emitting from my father, he can't really give a look back as Mittens makes his entrance and rubs figure eights excitedly around Kurt's ankles. Well, if you count out dad, the whole immediate family adores him…assuming the dogs don't care! Mom doted on us, which caused dad to get in an even worse mood—more to take out on Kurt—and I watch dad menacingly pick up utensils to start terrorizing the plate of food mom laid down for him. Thank you, Lord, that those sharp objects are aimed at the steak and not at Kurt, I love you, I really do. A terse and brief conversation went on between mom and dad which resulted in his food getting snatched from him before an apology was delivered, the mood lightening once that occurred.

After we all finished up a quick bite mom and I washed the dishes; my hands lock up as I see them exchange looks. They want to talk, to decide. They want to quietly confer in a dark little corner while drawing out blue prints for a master plan concerning my beloved, oddball blue one. Mom and dad want to talk about Kurt. My heart leaps nervously into my throat as I rescue the drowning dish; Jay drying her hands clean on a nearby towel to run away with dad and start the chat.

Kurt, blessed little Kurt, picks up where she left off. Almost done with the last few, bubbles growing on our hands, he won't tell you but he was practically holding my hands the entire time, underwater. His fur became matted down and darker, glistening with moisture, but we finished and I flicked bubbles onto him to show him I was still surviving. My lil' sweetheart. He grins back at me, a half devilish smile creeping up on his lips, "I think he likes you," I say as I wipe my cheek with a clean part of my arm, watching his smile fall and crash to the kitchen floor, left teetering in a million invisible pieces at our feet.

"He reminds me of Logan," says the German. Yes, that takes me a minute but then I realize it's the guy he hooked up with Zeta in the net earlier and I grin. He looks so pitiful when he shivers, even if he's only joking, and it makes me want to hug him. My brain can't register the beginning of the 'you should hug him' notion, and regardless my hands are already around his neck and my nose at his collarbone (we have height differences…) he grins down at me and I feel his fingers under my chin.

"They'll like you, I know it. Just show them the 'you' that you show me." His lemony eyes blink at me and the tiniest, feather-soft grin strings his lips together, upward, before he kisses me. It's just as euphoric as it was on the street. Sweet, soft, and everything else that seems forbidden and just. Mom clears her throat from the entryway, tapping on the wall just as Kurt started to totally wrap me up in the wondrous world his lips and touch provided; I jumped, of course, I scare easily. Stepping away from him out of sheer embarrassment, I feel his tail brush up against the back of my legs, an endearing but mischievous 'we may not be done yet' gesture that gave way to the fact he was starved for tender human contact and truly only meant me good.

Kurt was a romantic in disguise. "He's in the clear!" my mother announces and I could jump for joy. Yes! I mean, I didn't really have much to worry about on account of dad not being anti-mutant, but it's still relieving to know they will at least give him a chance.

"I stay?" Kurt confirms curiously. Aww, his little broken sentences just warm my heart. To answer him I just let loose a happy squeal and jumped into his arms. He was so shocked and confused the blue teen almost failed to catch me, roping his arms beneath my legs only fast enough to cause us both to swoop slightly towards the ground until he brought me up to his eyelevel; we shared a secret kiss.

"You stay." He smiles, displaying nice white teeth with a slightly more animal nature to them and kisses me again. There can't be anyone better than him, it's gotta be impossible. Thirty minutes later dad marched in, formal, straightened in his spine and no longer glaring at Kurt.

"It's getting close to her bedtime, son. Visiting hours are over. Say goodnight and get out."

"CARL!"

He rolled his eyes at my mother's inescapable yell. Cringing, he sucks on the inside of his cheeks and bows to Kurt as a sign of acceptance and tolerance. "You're welcome anytime…" it seems enforced by some invisible Jay-related gesture or look that can seep through the walls and fly past the corners of our house but dad is nonetheless encouraging him to return. How sweet. Kurt doesn't really know whether to thank him or keep alert for some sort of punch, or other type of infliction, but nonetheless he manages a nod, crunched up and cautious about himself.

"But you're gonna have to fight me soon if you wanna keep dating her. Father's policy." his arms cross and I can practically feel the four hundred and fifty degree glare stemming from Jay as she appears behind him with her own crossed arms stance and tightly pinched together mouth letting him silently know he's in for a badgering when we all shut our doors tonight.

"Honey, why don't you see your little boyfriend out, huh?" they're already starting to get warmed up for a fight, I can feel it. Usually it'll start with miscellaneously emphasized daily activities; like for mom, she'll start clanking pots and pans together when she doesn't want to hear him, should she be in the kitchen. Dad will turn the TV up if he's in the living room.

"Can go to her room?" Kurt asks curiously, his tail swishing idly.

"WHAT?!" the fact that mom snaps at him indicates the cork is about to explode out of the bottle. And not in celebratory means, either.

"Is better for tele-teleporting!" quickly stammers my mutated boyfriend as he jumps back for me to hold, as if I can protect his taller self from my mom! Ha!

"Oh…" mom loses a bit of steam (at least towards Kurt), "knock yourself out. Just get going, it's getting darker." he nods and slips his hand into mine. It's the first time I've ever seen it, but his fur actually bristled as we left the danger zone otherwise known as the kitchen and I walk him up the stairs through a left-ajar door to see my waiting window permitting a cool breeze to run between the things that clutter my room and shows who I am. At first he's mystified by all my little knickknacks littering my desk--papers, drawings, smaller stuffed animals, a bottle of water, various hair ribbons that I don't often wear, my purse, and a couple of fairytale/mythology books—and then turns his eyes to see the broader picture: my whole room. Posters on various walls and a huge net teeming with a menagerie of stuffed animals hanging on the south wall absolutely amazes him, and he finally finds himself groping the windowsill to pull him out of the fantasy. Poised on the edge of the windowsill, crouched between the fully-opened window portion that slides down to close the opening, he smiles and lets his tail beat on the side of the house.

"Your room shows the pretty one my eyes like to look at." His cheesy cute line makes me laugh and my cheeks light up as I scratch his hair a little.

Giggling, I say, "I hope so, you know, all this stuff is mine and all…" and lean delicately and cautiously on the little bit of windowsill he's left untouched by his body mass. He bends down, very compact at this point which is slightly startling, and nips my lips in a little kiss. He is quite impish, and "Elf" that Logan calls him seems to fit at this point. Kurt doesn't seem to want to leave, but he does anyway, taking a couple more kisses for the road just as the shouting and clanking starts to whisper against my door from downstairs.

"I have surprise for you," says Kurt, hanging upside down from a tree branch connected to the tree near my window and smiles crookedly at me. "Has somezing to do vith my school, but you vill know soon enough." He promises, giving me a wink and a wave with his blue three-fingered hand before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"School?" bemused, I slowly shut the window and try to figure out what the heck he's talking about, but to no avail.

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_Dear Kurt_, of course, the letter waiting on him was all in German but the blue fuzzmeister of the X-Men was absently translating it into English as he safely shut himself in the room and continued to read on. _We have finally reorganized the circus and settled again in Munich. Is very nice place, you remember it, yes? Perhaps you should come and do a show or two again, visit your old Mama more, won't you? I hope you are doing good at your school, son, I do worry for you with your looking like and such, but know I love you very, very much and pray that you are safe where you are._

_How is the nice old man who saved you? You treat him kindly, he did do wonderful thing for us and you! Mama hopes that you are doing very nicely in your classes, I realize learning the English over there is harder; you were never good with making full sense because you always were a wild little boy. That is why Mama told you to pay attention to the visitors to the circus when you were little, they spoke English, remember that? Of course you don't, but Mama does, and Mama is always right, you remember that, I hope. _

_Anyways, niceness and 'I miss yous' aside, Mama has very bad news for you, mien liebling. I was doing my usual readings and whatnot to impress the visitors to my tent when my cards flipped over indicating a man who made me think of you. The reading did start off with romance for you, and I am happy, you meet that pretty girl and come show her to your Mama, no? I won't bite. The cards revealed trials and a mysterious figure that will bring murder and death._

_I do not want for your little liebling to be hurt, or you, so perhaps you will think of coming back to Munich? Be safer with us? Even I do not fully know who may try to attack you, or how close they are to doing so but please be careful, liebling. At first though I picture mysterious woman to be your real mother, the one who abandoned you so I could find, we both know she is well possible of this, and it makes me cry at thinking it. Be very careful, liebling._

_Love,_

_Margali. _

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"Death and murder?" Kurt frowned at the letter, folding it back into thirds to hide his mother's neat German cursive as he tucked it delicately under his little cross and rosary. A cold chill harassed him; and Kurt trembled as if he'd had a mind blowing epiphany. Someone he knew might die. Immediately his thoughts flew to Mimi, he couldn't let her die…he had to protect her. Zeta had written down the girl's house number and placed it somewhere on his large dresser; so he set to finding it just to make that one call and hear her voice; he had to know she was okay.

After twenty minutes of pillaging he had the jagged scrap of notebook paper in his shaking hands. When he should be sleeping, he couldn't, Kurt was too keyed up from the letter and picking anxiously at his casual sleeping clothes as the phone rang. _"Hello?" _he sighed relievedly into the mouthpiece when he heard her reply as she inhaled a breaking-away-from-sleep breath and sighed dreamily. He could picture her rubbing those tired green eyes and smiled slightly.

"You are okay? No one in your house is hurt?"

"_I'm fine…" _His heart almost broke at the tone of exhaustion displayed by her words. Poor thing. _"Everyone's alright…we're…okay." _She had a small yawn. _"I have to go though, okay? I'm not supposed to be on the phone this late. I'll talk tomorrow, might come over. Get some sleep, alright? Don't worry about us. Night, Kurt, I love you."_

"Ah," he forgot about her phone curfew and hope to the heaves she didn't get grounded for his panicked check up. "Zat is fine, okay. I go. You get sleep; I love you too, goodnight."

Okay, so she was still alive. That was good; he set the phone back in the cradle on the edge of his dresser and sighed into the pillow he kept his death grip on. Margali's note had him disturbed now. If not death and murder, now, then when would it strike? Who?

Unbeknown to his own self, he managed to fall asleep despite the stress. Nightmares were conjured in the shape of a blue woman with bright orangish-yellow eyes; she was laughing at him. Telling him all sorts of horrible things like who she would kill, who she would imitate just to unravel his brain, and that he would watch it all happen…


	6. Dance with Danger

**Three** Little **Words**

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**AN: **Into the new month and already **49 hits **and **29 visitors**! Thanks :] Scenes used from the episode "Shadow Dance". Please take the poll on my profile, it would help tremendously.

Key

Guten mogen, liebling – Good morning, darling.

Das ist ganz richtig – It's alright

Danke – Thank you

Sie sind mein gotischer Engel – You're my gothic angel

Ich bin Ihr Retter, und Sie sind mein hübsches junges Mädchen in der Qual – I am your Savoir and you are my pretty damsel in distress

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Six: **Dance with Danger**

"Um, Professor?" Kurt shyly pressed himself to the large door connected to Charles Xavier's office and quietly squeezed in through the small, open space, shutting the door softly behind him. "I vas vondering if you could—"

"I'd be more than happy to modify your image inducer."

"Thank you, Professor." Kurt smiled and gently set the image inducer on his desk. With Charles being a telepath, it would be easy for him to figure out what Kurt wanted, and he laughed at the sight of Charles' face contorting lightly in question. "Is Girl's Choice dance…"

"I see. I'll have it done before the dance tonight, meanwhile, Forge wanted to see you down in the lab."

"Okay, thanks again Professor!" in an instant the blue-furred mutant was gone in a small halo of smoke. Charles sighed and began to fiddle with the contraption, setting in the two new holograms.

"He does have creativity…" the Professor didn't conceal that fact as he grinned, reprogramming the article.

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"So I put this on and zen I teleport?"

"Right," Forge confirmed, pushing buttons on a box with a flipping-panel front and shutting it closed once more. "All my gizmo's gonna do is slow you down a bit, see, I think you go into an alternate dimension when you teleport and I just want to have a look at it."

"How long vill I be in there? And vhere vill I be coming out?"

"Well…that's up to you. Pick a spot." said Forge as he tightened the little box and had Scott check Kurt's protective breathing mask.

"My limit is two miles!" exclaimed the blue creature, freaking out. He could really go anywhere? It seemed impossible, but too fun to resist a try. "And I have to see or know vhere I'm going!" Kurt pointed out, if he ended up falling short of his needed area, he could die; especially if he got stuck inside something. Scott gave the thumbs up to Forge and the eerily smart male smiled, clapping a soft hand on Kurt's shoulder.

"You'll be fine, trust me! Now pick a spot."

"I vant to go to the Gym and see the decorations for the dance." all his friends waved happily to him as a large buzzer went off. Kurt watched the little light bulbs glow in a descending order, counting down until he would teleport into that dimension between his point A and B. They were all wishing him a safe return and good luck; fear now tickled and romped in his stomach lightly, just what was he going into? When the last light flashed in a brilliant lemony hue he let himself go; floating soon after in a world of heat, fire, brimstone, and varying sizes of rocky land masses. _I think I'm in hell…_the surprised thought jammed itself into his brain, the scene of the bubbling lava, explosive geysers of sizzling heat, and barely surviving land speckling the live sea of scorching magma made him think of the Bible while the smog attempted to tickle his nostrils.

In just the same instantaneous feeling given to him when he arrived, it was reproduced again when he landed in the Gym. The Gym looked beautiful; a light, softened—almost powder—blue color by natural design the pink streamers instantly gave it a pop as the spiraling strands of tissue paper hooked on to the top of each pillar-like support carved out of the wall. Clusters of dark blue balloons were taped to the top of each pillar and held the tissue paper up; the table that would be used for refreshments had a creamy silk cloth, matching the spread of smaller, circular tables holding the same cloth design. Beneath his feet the wood floor had been polished and he stepped lightly on it, continuing to look around and marvel at the large disco ball suspended from the ceiling in the dead center of the room; it, too was twined around pink and blue tissue paper, like a Maypole, and distracted his eyes from the large banner saying what the event itself was. "So I have to get a blue tux," mused Nightcrawler as he reported back to the X-Men and was soon in their presence again, smiling happily.

"Before you take the tape out to look at it, I vant to teleport somewhere else…"

"Great!" Forge clapped his hands happily, rubbing them together. It would be more data for him to analyze, to define that odd realm, so he was all for it. "Now I'm going to set you for just a little bit longer this time, but you'll get where you need to go, okay?" Forge opened the box contraption strapped to Nightcrawler's chest and set the time for six seconds. Two more seconds than last time. Again there was the obnoxious buzzer and the loud, siren like descent of the lights until he was gone, off in the fiery realm that merely made his fur retain the heat and not necessarily sweat.

If it wasn't for the live fire, the menacing-looking bubbles and craggy sparseness of land, he might say it was a nice place to take a cozy nap. Kurt swiveled to his left quickly; he thought he heard a growl. Things echoed here, and he simply had to push it off as the bubbling lava or the crackle of the flames, but something started to tug at his stomach, a feeling of unrest. Something sped between two rocks he was currently floating by and Kurt curled in on himself, tail twitching sporadically; something had to be there, that couldn't be his imagination…but he couldn't define the shape, it seemed to have a tail, though. "That was fast…" he whispered, feeling slightly dizzy as he teleported into Mimi's bedroom, smiling as he removed all the gear, seeing the dead-asleep teen roll over in her sleep with a big smile on her face and hug the pillow to her right.

Quietly Kurt padded across her floor, making sure the equipment Forge had put on him wouldn't crash and wake her, before standing patiently next to the bedside. His thumb reached out and traced gently circles on her left cheek, watching her face flinch lightly as she snuggled down into her pillow. "Liebling, liebling, get up. I come to see you!" Mimi whined as the tail prodded her, rolling over to the opposite direction as she clung to the last bit of her dissolving sleep. Kurt listened to the bed creak as he gently laid on the right side of her, letting his tail wave up and down in one fluid, curling motion like a cat's tail would, until the tickling of the spade-like tip annoyed Mimi enough to open up her eyes. She groaned sleepily and clutched the tail in her hand, glaring down at it until her eyes widened and she rolled clear off the other side of the bed, staring up in bemuse at the creature lounging happily on her bed.

He tried to ignore the fact that she was in a nightgown, smiling innocently as possible while his tail continued to curl idly with the hypnotizing swish. "Guten mogen, liebling!" Kurt watched Mimi exhaled and lay softly on the floor, just lying still as he leaned over the edge of her bed, inhaling the scent of her with curiosity.

"What're you doing here?" She asked in a sleepy, slow, and almost unintelligible mumble. Kurt smiled, slipping from the bed to the floor and sitting her up to give her a hug. He was very attached, and craving hugs at the moment.

"I vas testing out gizmo for Forge and decided to come here after it ended testing."

"Forge?"

"I show him to you later. How did you sleep? Your family and you are still okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine. What on earth made you call me so late last night?" He smiled. Kurt didn't want to tell her about the note, not until he figured out more about it. There was no need to stir up such trouble and hysteria where it wasn't needed.

"Is nozing you should be vorrying about, I promise." Mimi exhaled a sigh and leaned placidly, drowsily, back on Kurt. He was very comfortable at the moment. "You should come to the Institute vith me; I have surprise for you there." She smiled and absently rubbed the fur on the underside of his chin.

"But I'm so comfy," She pouted, turning her swimmy green eyes to him. Kurt smiled at her, leaning his nose lightly against her forehead.

"Come on, ve go. I tickle you until you come vith me!" Kurt warned, cracking his knuckles. Mimi sighed, giving another whine and dragging herself up from the second warm body to pillage through her closet.

"Out in a minute."

Kurt adored the almost spongy feeling of her bed, taking delight in reclining on it as she took her sweet time in the bathroom. He felt mildly nervous, Mimi would say yes, right? Hopefully nothing would go wrong…the part of the letter describing "death and murder" still lingered in his brain. She came out in a short sleeved pink tee and a pair of blue jeans with ripped knees, Kurt sprang happily from the bed. "Come, I am getting too excited to not show you surprise, ve go now?"

"Let me just tell mom goodbye, dad's at work…" Mimi quickly ran down stairs to tell her mother she had to grab a few things from her room and then she'd be going to the Institute and visit Zeta for a bit. Kurt could hear her mother yelling goodbye as he collected the pieces of Forge's device.

"Hold on tight." He held the equipment to him in one arm and clasped her hands in his free one, keeping them pressed to his collarbone. Seconds after, they were in the Xavier Institute with smoke dispersing before them; Storm's face lit up as she pushed off the stairs, handing Kurt his image inducer.

"He says it's done." Kurt smiled down at the gizmo.

"You vait here, I vill go and get your surprise." Storm gave Mimi a surprised look with the traditional inquiry of a quirked eyebrow and all the poor human could do was shrug. She had no idea what this surprise was! Suddenly a beautiful onyx haired teen walked from behind the corner, she wore a dark red top and form fitting khakis. She smiled shyly at Mimi, who just blinked. "Vhen I learned that the school's dance was a Girl's Choice dance, I figured it vould only be right to ask you to come vith me as a girl…" the slightly feminine voice was unmistakably Germanic and led Mimi to believe the adorable girl smiling crookedly at her was Kurt, which was only proved when he let his blue tail show through the guise.

She and Storm began to laugh at the adorable rating of it all, and yet Mimi felt honored. I mean, Kurt got his watch programmed so he'd look like a girl girl just to ask her to a school dance, it was too cute! "So vill you come and dance vith me tonight?" the she-Kurt hologram held out her hand like a...er...gentle-woman and smiled up at Mimi. Mimi grinned back, embracing the illusion as it faded back into her beloved Kurt.

"Of course I will. You didn't have to dress up as a girl to ask me," Mimi pulled away from the hug slightly to look up at him, "I would've went with you anyways."

* * *

_Dear Mama, _Kurt had never broken the habit of calling Margali "mama" even if she wasn't his true biological mother; she'd still been around and loved him enough to be a real one. He sighed, trying to figure out how to start out the body of his letter. After seeing her own, he had so many questions, and knew that—sadly—it would take time for her to gain insight to what plagued them both, it was simply a time period of endurance for him. A time to exorcise caution, because something was out there waiting for him. Kurt pressed the pen back to the paper and continued to write out the German, occasionally curving a letter in his usual three-fingered writing style, it was quite loopy but elegant and neat in its own way, not shaky or messy whatsoever, _although you have warned me of the bad things happening, I am happy to say nothing has happened yet. I even called my liebling last night to make sure she was unharmed (her name is Mimi, and perhaps we can visit soon? It is something I must talk about with her parents…) and she was, so we are still safe._

_I am doing good at the Institute, I have friend called Forge and he is working to help me with my ability. He is very smart and is making gizmo that will allow me to teleport anywhere on the planet, or so he says. We find that I go through an alternate dimension when I teleport and it is very cool but somewhat scary because it reminds me of Hell in the Bible. I've been through it twice with no problem, he says he will tell me anything that comes up from his looking at it; Charles is still fine, and still very helpful to other mutants. He knows that I am grateful for wonderful things he has done, he is telepath Mama; he knows these things…_

_Mimi is actually teaching me a little more English like Jean and Beast. She read me part of a book and explained a few of the words to me. I have learned about five new ones, and I am very proud! A habit of hers is also correcting sentences, and she does this for me which makes me happy, now I can become better understandable…and ha-ha, I remember listening to the visitors! I just chose not to imitate them, was not fun…_

_If your cards reveal trial, perhaps I have already passed. I was very nervous about asking Mimi to school dance and she said yes! Very happy moment, and I will see if I can send a picture soon, the dance is tonight and I'm "freaked out" about going, I will have to wear gloves since my hands in human form are hologram and she will feel the fuzzy fingers of mine. She doesn't mind, I know, she said she loves me like I am, just the way I am (she is not scared, which makes me excited) but I will still wear them. Mystique has not yet been found by Professor or otherwise, so I think that we are safe for now, and that she is not close. Do not worry so much Mama, we will be fine; I love you and hope to hear back from you soon._

_Love, _

_Kurt (The Incredible Nightcrawler) (your circus child)_

He rubbed the writing cramp out of his three fingers, popping the digits with a sigh as he let the ink from his pen dry before attempting to fold the letter into thirds. After licking a disgusting tasting envelope he quickly teleported out into the streets where it was mostly desolate to drop the envelope in a public access mail box bolted to the ground. Returning to the mansion he briefly pondered the lack of activity on the street and nearly jumped out of his skin upon realizing it was almost time for the dance to start. Searching feverishly for the tickets he'd bought three days ago Kurt quickly found them stashed beneath the lamp on his nightstand and tucked them in his pocket, teleporting into Zeta's room to find her asleep, spread eagle on the bed and drooling. "Vake up! Vake up you sleepy drooler! Vhat flower is it that she likes?" Zeta was just coming to from the rude shaking and jiggling of her bed when she slung an arm out on instinct, her ultimatum to be left alone while Kurt simply dodged it and continued to pester her.

"GO AWAY!" Zeta finally howled, throwing three of her four pillows at him before burrowing into her bed sheets. Kurt was not deterred, however, and looped his tail around her nearest leg to drag her from the bed. She landed on the floor with a belligerent growl denouncing the 'thud' her body made and glowered up at him as if he were about to spontaneously combust on the spot. "She likes lilies, now go away before I have you so paralyzed you're gonna shit yourself!" Zeta warned and Kurt quickly backed off.

"I know the Bible says 'I shall fear no evil' but they haven't met Zeta vhen she sleeping. Should put sign on her door that say 'Do Not Wake Angry Woman' on it. 'Beware', too." Kurt began his quest for Storm, who he knew usually kept the flowers surviving around here. As he got to know the X-Men he found that Ororo had an impeccable talent for keeping greenery bright, vivid, healthy, and gorgeous. "Ororo," He asked cautiously, tapping the African woman on her shoulder lightly, "you have lily in your flower room?"

"The Greenhouse?" She corrected curiously, putting a finger to her chin in thought. "I might, why Kurt? Do you need me to get you one?"

"Ja, if you wouldn't mind me having it. Zeta said Mimi likes lilies."

"I'll see what I can find." he knew from personal experience and peeking adventures that the Greenhouse Room was a simple corner, perhaps no bigger than a closet, but here in the mansion a closet was fair size, perhaps the equivalent of a walk-in closet. In there, Kurt remembered, rested rows upon rows of flowers only she could distinguish; pots of all shapes and sizes, some on silver-metallic rows, others on the ground lining the walls, some you had to weave through, and a special few even dangled from the ceiling on little hooks. That room alone, it seemed to Kurt, held every color he'd ever seen. She came back with a dainty, frail, but beautifully moist and stark while delicacy wrapped in a sparse amount of plastic drawn together by a thin white bow. "Here you are, Kurt."

"Danke, Ororo." he waved to her, setting his holo watch so that the blue tux he'd requested to go with the color scheme covered his body. Before exiting the house, as he'd placed them, laid the brown gloves he decided to wear over his fingers to disguise his abnormality; Kurt sighed, straightened the hologram of a tie and teleported to her house. Cautiously, he knocked on the door. Jay smiled at him, welcoming him in and gasping at the flower in his hand.

"Hi Kurt, welcome in. Mimi's just finishing up, she looks so adorable I—"

"AYIIIIEE!" Jay's head snapped to the staircase as the feminine scream that seemed to escape from a movie bounced off the walls. That was Mimi's scream. Kurt immediately thrust the flower at the blonde human and bolted his way like an animal on all fours towards her room.

* * *

Mimi was very stoked about being asked to the dance, even in Florida she'd only been asked to a school dance a total of one time; and that one didn't even really count, she and a guy friend of hers who took band together really wanted to go to the dance itself and didn't want to go alone. The dancing didn't have a meaning behind it, the guy didn't even have a romantic attachment to her like she and Kurt did. She sighed happily and continued to straighten her mauve hair, something she didn't do too often, but took great care and lavished her attention upon her locks when she did. Her dress was a pitch black color, but elegant and adored by her all the same, she'd been dying to wear it, and relished the feel of the velvet-like fabric running through her fingers as she redirected her attention to her hair. Even Jay had fallen in love with it when they caught it cheap at a Ross store while she was looking for her real dress to go with Kevin that night, and they'd immediately snatched up the good shopping blessing after seeing it was in her size.

The dress itself was one piece and zipped up in the back, but given its design style it looked multi-pieced. Her top was cut in the sweetheart style, shaped like a corset that hugged her sides and outlined in silver stitches to frame the seams as a less noticeable criss-cross stitch pattern was used across the chest area to give a slimming, shimmery effect. A small sunflower-shaped circular brooch had been sown in to the center of the heart to block the downward point the shape of the heart with its two hill-like bumps made. Her medium-sized-in-thickness black chocker with the silver cross representing Jesus accented the top and she smoothed down the ruffles hiding like camouflage between the criss-cross trails of crimson-colored wonder. The dress stopped hree inches above her knees and what skin showed from that was covered by black leather boots with a two inch heel, which would make the difference in height between her and Kurt some five inches now, if that.

"Alright, now all I need are my gloves." Jay insisted that she not take a purse because someone would snatch that easier than they would an elbow-length glove, so Mimi was stuffing a little bit of cash into her left glove as she sighed and checked herself in a body mirror. "I hope he likes how I look…" She bit her lip and quickly slipped on her matching glove. There was a growl behind her and she turned around, fixing to laugh and joke with what she thought to be a noise coming from Kurt. "AYIIIIIEE!" the thing behind her had not been Kurt, and was actually some odd looking, red dinosaur-like creature with light brown stripes running across its hunched body much like a tiger pattern, that had a gaping mouth full of white, razor-sharp teeth gleaming at her. Like Kurt, it had two hands with three claws on it, and the bony arms of the horrifying creature reached out to her, trying to rake across the shoulder skin exposed by the off-the-shoulder dress; it lunged at her and she quickly moved out of the way, listening to it knock over the body mirror held up by the wooden case it rested in.

Her first thought was to get to the tiny bathroom adjoining her room; her flat iron was still plugged in and if she couldn't shut the door on it, she would burn it. She heard it growl again, and could hear it breathing on her as she tried to beat it to the bathroom. Suddenly her legs were taken out from underneath her as the dinosaur-creature blinked its fixed red eyes at her, turning back around with its tail wagging. Kurt lunged at it, hissing and tackling it into the nearest wall. Jay and Carl weren't too far behind him, dragging Mimi out of the room.

Their front door burst open again, Logan and some kid with a helmet-shaped gizmo, ran upstairs when the monster gave another angry howl; his food had gotten away from him. One zap from the device in the tanned boy's hands and the creature was gone. Kurt exhaled, back-flipping over Forge and Logan to see a very shaken Mimi not ready to let go of her mother or father yet. "Are you okay?" He gently cupped his glove-adorned hands around her face as a tiny tear twinkled in her tear duct, dancing slowly down her face. Mimi threw her arms around him and whispered something he couldn't decipher into his chest.

"Das ist ganz richtig." He combed out her fine and silk-like threads of hair through his fingers, repeating "Das ist ganz richtig" over and over again. She had admitted when they were curled up together in the hammock, bound by a bed sheet, she loved the way he spoke German. It had been her drug. Slowly, Mimi sniffed and pulled away.

"You're okay, right?" Kurt smiled at her.

"Of course I am, liebling. And you are? Ve do not have to go and dance anymore if you do not vant to."

"No…" her fingers trailed down his arm softly as she looked at the ground. True the monster had scared her, but Kurt had done a lot for her, and she knew it took a lot of him to ask her out. He was still very insecure, and she could practically see the beating he was giving himself for letting whatever that was come and ruin the day. "We're still going to go, if you want. I don't mind, I think I'd really like to dance with you." Jay and Carl were quietly talking downstairs now, no doubt asking questions about the monster. Kurt blushed lightly nervously placing a kiss on her lips.

"Then let's go, ve having dancing to do!" She giggled.

"Bye mom, bye dad! See you when we get back!"

"Be careful, baby!" Jay waved as Carl sighed. She gave him a smug look.

"Say it." She grinned, knowing her motherly instinct was not to be ignored and that her premonition of Kurt making an excellent boyfriend would not go unfounded.

"You were right…"

* * *

"Sie sind mein gotischer Engel." They'd been safely dancing for a little over an hour and Kurt couldn't keep himself from grinning. He told her sweet nothings in German, and found the roses blooming on her cheeks to be effervescent and hypnotizing. The boy felt like quite the romantic, and loved holding her in his arms, feeling the whisper of his own German words against the whorls of her ear as he pressed close enough to smell the scent of the sweet perfume she had applied. It was the first time they'd slow danced together, and the second song was permitting the second experience of the close dancing; Kurt let one hand slide from hers and wrap around her waist, smiling down at the little one in his arms. "Ich bin Ihr Retter, und Sie sind mein hübsches junges Mädchen in der Qual." that one wasn't as flattering as his first remark, and even coaxed a grin on his pale face, but nonetheless he spun her softly, it was all meant in good graces.

"What are you saying?" Mimi asked in a giggle, he'd yet to translate any of that for her. Kurt stopped and held her in the dip they shared, staring into her eyes with his trademark mischievous smile.

"My secrets to you, liebling. I might tell you though, for a price." her eyebrow quirked to him and Kurt smirked; he could see the devil emerging in her. It was something he had only once briefly seen, and imagined it to be an illusion on her face, but had adored it ever since the thought occurred to him that she may not be as innocent as she seemed. She was still holy to him, however, even if she wasn't the truest saint he'd ever met (which was yet to be determined).

"Name your price." it took all he had to keep his tail from twitching. Now he was imaging that line slightly twisted to a pirate-esk play. He was her Captain Jack Sparrow, and she his Elizabeth Swan.

"Vell," the way his eyebrows bounced she couldn't contain her giggle and the tones of her sweet laughter buzzed in his ears. His face went just a hair closer to her own, where he could feel the minty breath of hers escaping to almost take refuge in his own mouth, had his been open. He gave her a closed-lipped grin. "I vas thinking of using our personal currency…" her kisses were worth more than gold or diamonds to him. Her lips gleamed with the smallest trace of lip gloss that he wouldn't mind to be splayed across his own lips, and almost succeeded in running away with some of it on his own mouth had people not started screaming and heading for the exit doors like a stampeded.

Bemused, Kurt and Mimi searched the lavish Gym for the cause of the retreat. Kurt felt her fingers clench the material of the white shirt beneath his blue tux and navy blue tie. Two creatures like the one he'd grappled with in her bedroom had found their way, here, too. Jean and Scott, for now, were holding them off, but they were adamant about not leaving. How many more were there? His arms tightened possessively around her, rooted to the floor and waiting for one of them to dare and spring at them, Kurt knowing what he would do, and simply watched Jean throw one around with her ability as Scott shot the one that had foolishly phased through Kitty into the wall.

Lance, Kitty's date, made a chunk of the Gym floor rise with his hand, smashing the monster down with it, hoping to knock him out with no avail as the room shook. Kurt caught the off-balance Mimi in his arms, hearing her drawn in a sharp gasp of fear through her lips as the second beast, the freer one, caught them in its sights. "Ve are leaving." with that, he teleported out of the Gym, emerging in a desolate hallway. Mimi exhaled, shaking lightly and not hesitating to throw her arms around his neck and kiss him for saving her life for a second time. Kurt didn't have any time to announce that they should get out of here, and he would see her out to safety, as the pale pink lips pushed against his own and he felt the raw emotion in her kiss.

There was fright, love, surprise, and adoration. A minty mix of dazing affection; the pressure of her lips being hard, fiery, and fierce against his own but with such brutal tenderness he felt numb. "We've got to get you out of here. Come on!" Mimi let out her small 'Jee!' cry as Kurt took her hand and ran towards the closest door, leading her outside.

* * *

Mystique sighed; she could hear the faint whisper hissing through Magneto's little sanctuary. _"Mother…" _it whispered, _"let me out. I vant light, I vant touch." _only once had she seen that realm, a different reality that had existed long ago. He had served his purpose in that one, felt very rowdy and unfulfilled, and now wanted a new facet in which to emerge into. There was magic where he existed, and that was how he'd been communicating with her, through the polished surfaces of the metal at Magneto's control; countless little doorways in which to send his voice through. Deep within her biological son, Kurt Wagner, this beloved little hellion resided, a piece of him that he'd never nurtured but it clung to him with ferocious determination.

Love was one of the best blankets in which to coddle an infantine jealousy. He was her true infant, not the thing living in the Xavier mansion. This Kurt Wagner was truly hers, willing to do almost anything to get what he wanted; the dark little seed had festered when something had impacted Kurt—she'd yet to know what—and it began to grow the more he concentrated on it. He fought for it with such animosity that the seed had been lavished upon by thick sheets of hate, jealousy, and desire. Soon, and through the endurance of time, tucked in his own little pocket where Kurt himself couldn't reach him unless he made it fully through the dimension he constantly teleported through, he lived.

"_I vant touch." _He would always whisper, not able to project something to signify that. In that little pocket of space, safe away from the environment of the area by crossing over into the unheated cavern trailing miles south in which all light and source of heat were extinguished, lay a house. More mansion-sized, it was one he occupied all by himself, but soon that would change. _"Bring me touch? Make zem hate…"_ Mystique, herself, did not want the tangible Nightcrawler that survived to be happy, how could she want him to? The fuzzy blue creature had been raised totally opposite of her desire; not cold and assassin like as she wanted, but a love-struck, 'warm with fuzzies' idiot!

It would be most wonderful to wreck his world, as his presence had done to hers. She tensed her body, groaning lightly as her skin took on the guise of her own son and smiled at the six total digits looking up at her. _"Bring me touch…"_

"I will son," Mystique whispered softly, cooing to the metal before her. "I will…"


	7. Some Guise and Return of Nightcrawler

**Three **Little** Words**

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**AN: **Sweet you guys are so awesome and thoughtful! I think this is the first time since I created this story a month ago that I've hit over 100 views! For anyone who wants to know the current stats I have **103 hits **and **52 visitors** so thanks a lot everyone :D. Also for anyone who wants to know: **after this chapter there are only three left.** I am contemplating, though, on making either a oneshot or short-story to go with Mystique's "true son" mentioned in the last chapter ("Dance with Danger"). Enjoy! Yes the title of this chapter is a pun :] if it strikes anyone is odd. Spoken italics when Kurt gets to Germany represents them talking in German since I don't want to put it in literal German and have a translation key. It would make it a bit harder to read and I know it's a pain to keep scrolling up and down to see the key…

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Seven:** Some Guise and Return of The Incredible Nightcrawler **

Disguised like Zeta, Mystique made her way unquestioned to the Hoppner house after using her morphing ability to attain Wolverine's sense of smell and indeed find that it was Kurt's scent emitting from the house that beckoned her. _"Make zem hate…" _a chill rocked her blue body as she once again retained Zeta's form from a brief and constant Wolverine-used sniff to stay on path, remembering the dark and icy tone the damned piece of her son had issued out of the wall. Why it was so important for the girl and Kurt to hate one another, she couldn't know, but it would be achieved for her little boy. The blonde didn't seem to care that she passed into the house, much like a ghost, and sought out the girl; her eyes briefly going translucent in their brown slips to the true sunset orange that prowled for the child. A dull hammering sound caught Mystique's attention and she snapped her head towards the roof, making sure the sound wouldn't persecute her on her quest, unravel her and reveal the true identity (or motive) and she paused to take in the sight of her son crawling freely across the roof, leading a man hammering shingles down to the roof, his unmistakable blue tail swishing idly in the air as he continued to creep around; they looked to almost be finished with their task so if she was going to do anything damaging she'd have to do it fast.

Once safely inside and on the second floor where she'd seen from outside a light warming a room near the back of the house, she crept up the stairs with her skin fluctuating until Kurt's form had been stolen. BAMFing in unannounced to the girl's room, Mystique eyed the milky pale body immediately wheeling around in attempt to hide her half-nude shame as she tried to tie the bathing suit top together. There wasn't anything to lust after on her, Mystique thought out in logic, so why was her true son so adamant about tearing her and the blue abomination apart? "Liebling, there is somezing I must tell you…" the yellow gloved hands went behind his back and the body rocked on the heels of the two elongated, bird-like feet, "I have not been totally true vith you."

"Oh really?" Mimi had finally tied her top after the rush of shock and embarrassment subsided. She blinked her swimmy green eyes at the unknown imposter Kurt, skeptical but nonetheless willing to listen as she sat calmly on her bed. It wouldn't be the first time something had disappointed her, but Mimi could tell something was odd with the way this Kurt presented himself. He never rocked back and forth on his toes like that, and he most certainly never held his hands behind his back like he was hiding something from her.

"I love Amanda…is girl I grew up in circus vith vhen I was little boy," Mystique, however much she claimed to hate Kurt, had researched her biological son carefully. A woman named Margali had picked him up, saved him from a river after she fled the scene where she truly, accidentally dropped him, and had raised him ever since. He and Margali's biological daughter Amanda had sips of puppy love for the longest time, until Charles Xavier convinced him to come and live at the school where he met…this girl. This creature—this human—was a thing—an object—in Mystique's eyes, for whatever reason she couldn't fathom, the true Nightcrawler had wanted her; a human, as opposed to a mutant and she would be delivered. Just like things should be.

"One last hug?" the fake Nightcrawler gently padded across the room and softly embraced Mimi. She wrapped her arms around his neck, feigning a soft sigh of bittersweet goodbye before catching his left ear and whispering into it the fact she knew this thing in her arms was not the real Nightcrawler. Immediately Mystique pulled back, blinking her yellow eyes into the real orange that they were as Mimi's eyes widened at the sight. "I'm his mother…" She whispered back to the human, just as keen, quiet, and soft as the girl had placed her words in her own ear. The girl tried to run, Mystique knew she must be frightening but really didn't give a damn as she reassumed Kurt Wagner's form, teleporting them both to the roof; Mystique then slipped out of the guise, dangling the girl by one arm that her fingers dug into like talons, she began to swing her like a child, smiling insanely.

"You hate him," She crowed, continuing to swing the girl like a pendulum despite the fact she could hear the meaty '_thunk'_ of flesh hitting the side of the house, hear the knees scrape and the bones clank, "admit it. He's a blue monster, devil's design. You hate him, he's a freak! Say it!" for the short while Mimi spent fearing for her life at the hands of this maniac she felt courage stewing in her at the brash words. If this lady really was Kurt's mother how could she say such mean things?

"The only freak I see is you so fuck off bitch!" the swinging stopped and the Hoppner child dare inhale a breath of air with her veins wired full of adrenaline. Her heart slammed desperately against her ribcage. Orange eyes twinkled in mirth; she had the nerve to fight back, maybe that's why her real son wanted her. A saucy little fighter, she was; Mystique smiled at the girl, a quite odd and evil thing, grasping her by chunks of her mauve hair and hauling her to face level despite the sharp hissing and light squeals of the one wriggling in her hands. Intimately close the blue mother whispered in her ear; "Your days are numbered so I'd live them out well while you still can." her hold loosened a touch, "and don't call me a bitch." the human was flung from her arms as if she were living acid and sent towards the ground.

Kurt teleported to the ground, catching her in his arms and feeling very much like Errol Flynn as the girl gave an 'oomph' and looked up at him, eyes wild and breathing erratically. He glowered up at his mother, poised just so in the infamous crouch that he, too, was guilty of using. "Perhaps would be good time for me to talk vith your parents about my idea…" Carl stumbled as carefully as he could from the roof, running up to his daughter and shouting obscene curses at the blue woman on their roof. In an instant, donning Nightcrawler's appearance, she was gone in a blanket of black smoke fragrance a la brimstone. They were all seated safely inside the Hoppner house, Kurt holding tightly to Mimi's hand as he finished explaining what he knew of his mother, her ability, and her destructive personality.

"And the one I call my Mama, Margali, she is in Germany. She vould know about this, I vould like to take Mimi vith me for a few days to see her. It vould be safer zen leaving her here for Mystique to come back again. I vant your permission, though, to take her vith me." there was a long silence laden with very hard thinking for Carl Hoppner. Send his youngest across the world—practically—to go see her boyfriend's adoptive mother, alone, with him on a plane? There was no doubt in his mind that Kurt would keep her safe, but still, the two of them, alone? Together, with no supervision?! Still, sending Mimi to Germany with Kurt would undoubtedly keep her alive longer, and certainly prevent her from getting thrown off of roofs!

"Alright. She can go."

"Danke, sir."

"Call me Carl."

"Danke, Carl." Kurt quickly scampered after Mimi like a dog trying not to lose his owner. He grinned happily, trailing her into her room as she opened all of her dresser drawers, picking this and that from them to put in a Tang Su Do bag. Her motions slowed as the bag continued to fill with contents and Kurt blinked his honey eyes at her curiously, watching the human slow and finally sit, hunched over. "Liebling?"

"In my room, before she put us on the roof…she said there was another girl, Amanda, is that true?" her eyes were so full of pain Kurt felt his heart twirling madly on the proverbial strings that kept it aloft within him. How could he ever hurt her? More importantly, how could his own mother, the real one, the one who was supposed to love him, poison her so with such lies? Well, they weren't full lies, but they were now forgotten and meaningless to him.

"There vas a time when I thought I liked her, but ve never did anyzing together. She was more interested in normal men. You're the only one for me, liebling. I promise zat vith nozing but truth." His gloved hands took hers and he saw the sunken, unsure eyes captivated by the floor. Kurt brought her chin up with his fingers, balancing the delicate structure on his fingertips. "Liebling, I promise. I love you, and Amanda could never change zat…ve don't matter to each other anymore, her and I. I have a letter she sent me to prove zat we are nozing…She and the other man are married now. I could never love a married woman, unless she vas the one I married." His soft smile was contagious and soon Mimi modeled it, resting her forehead against his as she batted her eyelashes softly, placing a tender kiss on his fuzzy lips.

"I believe you…" She gave him a hug, enjoying the feel of his warm body pressed lightly against hers. That fake Kurt could never give her this. Mimi nuzzled into his shoulder, letting the boy hold her for a few sweet minutes before she returned to packing. Kurt turned away from her as she started to place her 'unmentionables' into the bag, looking mildly surprised as the Blackbird gently touched down on the carport outside the house, turning invisible upon landing.

"Our plane is here, if you are ready." He drew up the blinds and pinned back the curtains for her to see through the sunny vista, Storm and Scott standing outside chatting with her parents. "No doubt the professor found me vith Cerebro."

"Cerebro?"

"I vill fill you in on ze ride home."

"You're not going to pack anything to take with you?"

"I came from Germany; most of my things are still at home. Although, I do hope the Professor had someone pack vhat little things vere in my room before zey left."

"True, I didn't think about that." Mimi sighed, looking almost cautiously around her room. She'd never been out of state before, with the exception of coming here. In truth, she was afraid to go to Germany. Kurt seemed to sense this and smiled softly, rubbing her hand with his fingers as he carried her bag and exited the house with her. "Bye mom, bye dad. I love you!"

"We love you too, kiddo, stay safe, alright?" Carl withdrew his arms from his daughter as Mimi gave her final wave from aboard the Blackbird, nervous and holding Kurt's hand, who sat right next to her in the plush seats.

"Danke for taking us to Germany, Scott. Danke to you as well, Storm."

"Quite alright, Kurt. We were more than happy to come and take you home."

"But you'll be coming back to the X-Men, right? You're not staying?" Scott asked curiously, smoothly piloting the large jet as it flew through the skies undetected.

"Ja, I will be returning. We're just making sure ve get avay for avhile."

"The Professor did say Mystique made herself present, is that why you're going to Germany?"

"Ja. I figured Mama would have answers…"

* * *

The plane touched down in a little place Kurt called "Munich", and he excitedly dragged Mimi from the plane after turning on the image inducer. Margali had yet to see him in his human disguise, he would be most exuberant and ready to show her that he could walk among the human without instilling fear. Well, really he didn't care whether or not he looked normal, now, he had someone to accept him the way he was, forever. He took her hand softly in his, weaving through the people exiting the circus until he ran into a very muscular man, Klaus, he knew, who stood as one of their two best spotters for the acrobats and did an amazing weight-lifting sideshow for the entertainment of the crowds. _"Hello, there Klaus!" _Kurt smiled and waved at the massive man scrutinizing him, not recognizing him for lack of blue fur, tail, and pointed Elvin-like ears he was born with.

"_We are closed for today. Please begin to exit with everyone else."_ The blue X-Man wagged a finger at the man, not intimidated by the shadow growing closer to him. He felt Mimi press gently into his side, unsure of what to do, when Kurt finally laughed and turned off the hologram. Klaus' face resolved into one of joy at the sight as he scooped both Mimi and Kurt up to give them a monster-sized hug. _"You are still trickster you left us here being!"_ Klaus commented with a shake of his head, setting them down and giving Kurt a solid, homely pat on the back. _"Your Mama has been waiting to see you, she's in her trailer."_

"_Thank you, Klaus."_ He wrapped his arm around Mimi, smiling to the large man and giving him a two-fingered salute as he proceeded to walk to his mom's trailer near the back of the circus.

"_Looks like you can finally have a grown up bed!" _Kurt flushed at the comment, knowing what that meant as he finally stopped at Margali's door.

"What was all that about?" Mimi asked curiously. Never had she heard so much intoxicating German before, so smoothly spoken it gave her goose bumps.

"Nozing you need to worry about, liebling. Klaus was just saying 'hello'." He wrapped an arm around her, knocking again.

"That was an awful lot of talkin' for just a hello Kur—"

"Mama!" Kurt threw his arms out wide with a large smile on his face as a raven-haired woman emerged from the trailer. She smiled, babbling hurriedly in German tongue before embracing her son and hugging him tightly to her as if he would be lost otherwise.

"Come in," her accent was heavy and Mimi looked utterly surprised that the woman could speak what English she could for living directly in Germany. Then again, Kurt came from here and he could speak it just fine…bad sentences, somewhat, but he could speak it nonetheless. "Look at you," Margali's hands went to Mimi's pale cheeks and gave the smallest little pinch, "you're so tiny! Light like little bird. Is nice to meet you, I am Kurt's mother, Margali."

"It's nice to meet you, ma'am." Margali smiled big, whispering in German again and nudging Kurt with her elbow, gesturing something Mimi couldn't understand with her eyebrows. Kurt's face flushed beneath his blue fur and Mimi smiled at him. He looked absolutely adorable when he blushed!

"You call me Margali, just like Kurt."

"Mama, this is Mimi." Kurt twined his arms around Mimi and she laid a hand gently over one of his.

"_You better be being gentleman to her, she is kind to you. Mama can tell this!"_

"_I am."_

"_Then why God give you mischievous little trouble maker smile and Satan's tail in blue?"_

"_Because he wanted to." _Kurt stuck his tongue out at his mother and she laughed. _"She likes it."_ He rolled his shoulder, his eyes, and his face to Mimi and grinned at her. She blinked back, smiling and tapping his nose.

"_Kurt Wagner!"_

"_You raised me to be honest…"_

"All of ze children are sitting outside by the fire toasting marshmallow. You vant one? Go sit with zem," Margali pushed the two gently towards the door of her trailer. "Zey have not seen you in long time, Kurt, zey will be happy you're home." Kurt's tail swished lightly, his skin overcome with dancing shades the warm fire cast over him. All of the children living in the circus with the older folk were mesmerized by the fire and the mesh of colors, enticed by the gooey treats cooking just so at the end of sanitized and cherished sticks that had been sculpted to their own perfection over time and practice.

"Have a marshmallow for two more?" Kurt's voice carried over the crackle of the flame and the kids turned from their zombie stare, munching on the crispy-skinned treats as some blew fire off the helpless treat and ate it, licking their fingers. Suddenly a unanimous caw of 'Kurt!' arose from around the fire, arriving in all sorts of tones and a chorus of different-aged voices. Little children of all shapes and sizes rushed over in their night clothes to swamp the legendary circus performer's feet and take him down at the knees. "I am happy to see all of you again. This is Mimi. She's my…uh—"

"Bed partner?" one of the little girls asked with a huge grin. Mimi turned scarlet. Kurt had yet to explain to her the sleeping ritual of the circus seeing as how there were so many people to accommodate and so few beds.

"Ja. So, children, I vould like you to meet Mimi Hoppner." kids began to swarm Mimi, too, and she giggled. All the tiny hands were so perfect and adorable. She loved kids. Two identical twin girls with short dark brown hair and enormous smiles walked up to her, the one on the left jumping on the right twin's shoulder, balancing and throwing their pale arms out in the 'ta-da!' style. Mimi gently wrapped her arms around the top one, holding her on her hip in case the twin on the bottom might stumble and fall.

"Hi, it's nice to meet all of you, too!" Mimi and Kurt answered various questions before the marshmallow consuming began again. A little girl with bleach blonde hair soon walked by, seeming to float up to the popular contained fire with bobbing curls and a breezy white nightgown, taking roost next to Mimi and kicking her feet. "Well hello, there!"

"Isabelle doesn't talk." said one of the twins who'd met Mimi earlier.

"The numbers have grown since I vas last here." Klaus came up to the fire again, jabbing his thumb to tents and a wide spread of mattresses on the ground. It was bedtime.

"This is Janice, Janet, Herb, Harriet, Isabelle, Lauren, Henri, Viney, Sean, Cossette, Andre, Ludwig, Noir, Jason, and Tom. And it's their bedtime, say goodnight." fourteen little children gave an audible groan of disappointment. Behind Klaus was his twin brother, Klark, which the children took pleasure in jumping on and hanging off of as the piggyback to bed began. Mimi looked at the dozing Isabelle in her arms, smiling softly at the girl who looked so much like her mother as Klaus gently took the tired little girl from her grasp and set her in a bed with two other girls. All of the beds had at least three children in them.

"See the bedding style? Zat is why asking to be bed partners mean so much." Kurt guided her to a vacant bed, one of the ones reserved for the older children when they reached 'bed partner' stage. "Bed partner in ze circus is like asking for a commitment. You are willing to share a bed with another person, it's about the same as…" his cheeks flushed and he trailed off. Mimi gently laid a hand over his, looking at the blue mutant curiously as her head tipped to the side, watching him recline gently to the worn mattress as she soon did the same.

"It's about the same as what?"

"Being engaged. It means the one you promise to share only a bed with, only zem, that you have unconditional love. That you sign your right of your body over to zem, and they do the same for you. You share ze bed as a couple…" She felt his arms twine around her and bask her in the warmth his fuzzy body gave off.

"Night Kurt, I love you…" Mimi ran her hands slowly through his black hair, taking care in not catching it on her fingers as they unintentionally lulled each other to sleep.

"I love you too, liebling." his tail pulled up the blanket rolled safely together at the foot of the bed. His arms locked gingerly around her as his head pressed into her collarbone and upper chest. Tonight would make for good sleep.

* * *

Magneto sighed and tried for the third time to pry Mystique from one of the various metal corridors in his little hideout. It wasn't so much a hideout as a contemplation spot to combat Charles, and thankfully it was away from the Brotherhood. She was talking to him again, her "son" lost in the dimension only accessible by Kurt Wagner and his abilities. Finally pulling away from the wall Mystique quickly changed into Nightcrawler. "He says there's a machine he's seen Wagner wear when going in there once. It helps slow him down and stay in there. I'm going to get it for him."

"And what are you going to do after that?" Magneto asked in a dull but cordial tone. She grinned, orange eyes flashing.

"Go to Germany. I have my ways of getting there…"

"_Bring him to me…"_ the trapped part of Kurt Wagner beseeched. He had his plans, and could only begin them once Forge's gizmo was in his possession, or at least, Mystique's. All that was really needed was a way for him to get out, and by reversing the gizmo, he could. _"I vant to make him suffer…he has been unkind to me…"_

Vanishing in a ring of foul-smelling brimstone smoke Mystique began her journey through the Xavier Manor, morphing from person to person; exchanging skins constantly to stay out of suspicion and make sure only one copy of one person was present in the rooms as she hunted down the laboratory for the machine. She found it in three pieces, quickly roping her arms in them and clutching the articles against her before disappearing. Alarms wailed behind her like children, but she was already fleeing the manor, someone not far behind her. Kurt's abilities were coming to use quite nicely, teleporting her instantaneously from spot to spot, farther from the site of the crime. Magneto watched her appear before him again, huffing and looking deranged (to say the least) as she whispered to the wall in confidentiality once more.

"Good luck," he barely waved as she went on a second pilgrimage.

"I don't need luck…" the doors shut with a metallic '_clang' _behind her. The mother looked distraught and wild, furious. "I need my son…"


	8. Two Possibilities

**Three** Little **Words**

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**AN: **Thanks a bunch to **Morning-Sunset** for her review :]. There are currently **155 hits** and **74 visitors** to the story. **Two chapters remain**, and in these last two chapters you'll see why three little words can mean so much. I think and I tried, when I first started this story, to bring in the importance of communication between relationship simply because it's a lack of thing I see between those around me, especially in today's present time. If I can make you wonderful readers leave here thinking about communication, relationships, or the impact of words then I've done my job. If anyone is confused the "Age of Apocalypse" was a different reality for a different Nightcrawler. Tidbits about it can be found on .org. To save some people confusion as well, "Kurt Wagner" refers to the Kurt that lives in the Xavier Institute/Manor with the others, "Nightcrawler" is referring to the "true son" of Mystique's locked away in the fire-brimstone-lava world that Kurt goes into when he teleports.

* * *

Eight: **Two Possibilities**

For the first time, ever, she stood in the lair of her one true son. Mystique blinked her Nightcrawler-yellow eyes and drank in the sight of the "unwholesome" part of her son. He was just lonely. The darker indigo fur, borderline midnight blue, consumed him and his luminescent lemon eyes watched the mother continue to turn the dial—prolonging her time in his home—as he went on to explain his entire logic behind his ploy. "I still have to go and get the real Nightcrawler, he's loitering in Munich at the moment." her hand ran lovingly across the neglected son's light prickle of facial fur and he smirked at her; her smirk. "I'll be back in a few minutes, mother promises." and it didn't feel weird to refer to herself as such a figure because he was worthy of knowing her as such.

"Bring zem both, it vill be interesting to see."

"Alright, I will. I'll be back shortly."

"No, vait!" He had to reconsider; his little game of sorts would be much more fun if someone was left to pursue the other. "Bring only ze other me. I vant to talk vith him especially…"

"But what about your little love interest? Hm, the one that's going to make this all work for you?" the teen's face flushed despite the blue skin coloring and the mother smiled at him. Mystique felt as if she'd been right alongside this son for real, and that this teasing was needed—something she missed out on with the unfortunate real thing that shared her DNA—and something that made her feel like a true mom. Golden, wholesome.

"Ve can bring her later…"

"Are you sure? Absolutely positive? I'm really about to go." no one would ever catch her using such a babyish tone again and it only lived here, in the stone tunnel connecting her exit with his grand marble-like mansion that thrived in the sulfurous, heated atmosphere lying before it. Anyone who ever heard such adoring phrases, coos, leave her mouth would be more than miserable for quite some time, especially if her doting leaked out for others to see or hear about.

"Yes, mother, I'm sure. Go, please, before they leave. I can hear zem talking…" lightly Nightcrawler placed his hand along the smooth and glossy tunnel inside, you really could hear the whispers from the tangible world outside of toxic smoke and scorching lava. They were laughing, and that thing able to pass as his twin was having all the fun. He was locked down here being miserable, going insane every time the angel's tone strummed luscious chords that he could only strain to hear reverberating off the walls of his home. It was unfair, to have been "jaded" all of these years, but now his part within Kurt Wagner was almost as large as the center she called her own—another fraction of his heart—and whosoever controls the heart, controls the whole body. She was very vital in all this, as three words to the tangible Kurt Wagner, the one she could look at face to face every day, could make or break him.

One simple phrase could decide who came out and who got locked away. Her decision played out the very fate of Kurt Wagner, poor little mutated blue devil-apparent from Germany. Why? Because she was so highly thought of, to both of them. Nightcrawler, Mystique's true son, refused to even call himself Kurt, and if he did he'd put 'evil' in front of it, but preferred to use the alias just to set himself fully apart from the weakling.

He was weak in the other's eyes because he was so tempted with a human. The Kurt Wagner from Germany had never killed a soul, whereas, in a different dimension before taking roost in quite the hospitable niche of jealousy and lusting, adoration, and love Mimi Hoppner had bestowed upon him, Nightcrawler had killed countless people. In the other dimension, one he called the Age of Apocalypse due to the only thing thriving in the time period besides bloodshed being ruin; he'd lived like a king among men. Yet, he had no queen to adore him. This is where she came in…this craving to have a partner, to be loved and doted upon by someone who wasn't a secondary incarnate of his own mother.

No one had wanted to touch him in the original place he'd escaped from. They feared him, hated him for tearing their families apart. Nightcrawler would have his queen yet, he'd earned her. Listening to the barely-acknowledged 'BAMF' of his duplicated body escaping into Munich, Germany, he began to quietly polish the two sabers that had sealed his fate as an inspirer of fear in his homeland. This action not only left his two prized weapons looking nice and cleanly for Kurt Wagner's arrival, intimidating to the true flesh that yearned to be human, but also kept him occupied.

Nightcrawler from the Age of Apocalypse home had no desire whatsoever to hide what he truly was. One thing being he didn't see fit to hide himself, it just didn't seem right in his lightly touched mind to try and hide what was natural; besides, the sweet nectar of fear he so liked to see paint their faces—here and at home—was best gained through showing his true form. Mimi, little apple of his envious eye, didn't seem to mind it; he could hear them kissing gently so, the tiniest brush of lips, from their other worldly home outside of the in between realm. How undeserving Kurt Wagner was in Nightcrawler's mind—getting free access to quite the delicious sin; one so pure when Kurt Wagner himself encompassed Nightcrawler deep within him. Admittedly the only thing keeping Nightcrawler and his polar-opposite personality from overthrowing the human-like, genteel intellect exploding with innocence, and resilient niceness was her.

She—the seamstress that could stir such hate directed at others and compassion only for her within Kurt—was the only thing that allowed him to keep his fate. Mimi was why Nightcrawler was having such a hard time contaminating the pansy of a man. Setting his swords down softly on the matching glossy table carved ornately and deadly sharp out of surrounding chunks of rock stolen from the other side of the tunnel, Nightcrawler turned into his large kitchen fit for four hundred and began to mix the powders and herbs lying in wait on him. Grinding them into a powder, then mixing them into a paste thanks to water contributed by the faucet nearby, he had the spell complete that would keep the two cauldrons at the foot of his lavish dining room table perpetual with their steaming, bubbling vistas. Half of the concoction went into the one at his right, the last entering the one on his left.

The twin cauldrons committed simultaneous actions in acceptance of the mixture; both bubbling, frothing, spitting, steaming, and whistling as the wild colors—orange and purple—faded away to reveal what could be. Obviously from what he could see, the left cauldron was what was meant to happen for the German boy, the one on the right is what he, Nightcrawler, the Evil Kurt, yearned to have happen. Only in one did she look glowing with happiness, effervescent and eternally coddled in the good angel's hold, continuing to be graced by good blessings. Hiding in the right one, in his reality, his want, did he see her dim, opalescent, upset, but never more beautiful – the sad beauty, and better yet, in his arms. _"No! What are—who are you? Kurt!"_ his angel's scream raced into his home, leaving him smiling as the other part of him, donning his true mutated appearance, was dropped inhospitably to the kitchen floor by his—their—own mother.

* * *

"I can't do that!" Mimi was clapping nonetheless, being supportive and watching in awe as Kurt Wagner effortlessly completed his usual routine that took him an entire childhood to master. He smiled down at her, all the while, strolling along the tightrope high above the ground without a safety net much like a normal human would just cross the street. His tail caught the swinging trapezes Klaus and Klark were keeping in motion, the pendulums of the Big Top making the blue creature twist, spin, fly, and loop gracefully without fear as he finished. Ending up on the same platform he began from Kurt crouched, teleported, and straightened from his giving spine's flex with a broad smile aimed at his girlfriend; accepting the awed kiss of adoration as a bonus.

"You come up there vith me, I teach you to walk the tightrope. I'll hold your hand the entire time, I von't let you fall!" Kurt was adamant about the human at least trying it, so she balanced unsteadily, holding his hands as he perched her along the rope. True to his word, Kurt wasn't letting her even wobble; lifting her in the air every time she begun to teeter, smiling and purring to her German nonsense to coax her to the other end of the line. Almost to the very end of the line, with his hands around her petite waist and her own pale arms outstretched like an infant just learning how to walk, eager to grasp the large column-like structure to bring her back into stability, the line wobbled furiously. Why? Another Kurt Wagner, much like how Mystique could shift herself into copying him, was shaking the line with his teleporting-induced debut, stealing the real Kurt Wagner, the original Nightcrawler, from beneath the Big Top in one fell swoop that ended in a stinky residue of sulfur smoke dyed blue.

"No!" Mimi wobbled, catching herself and clinging to the tightrope as if her life depended on it, which it did at the moment. "Who are—who are you?" She'd asked the thing while it was still attached to Kurt, seconds before the leave, and swishing the identical blue spade-tipped tail regardless of the situation at hand. "Kurt!" in an instant, they were both gone and the line was jarred again, dancing messily beneath her fingers. Klaus and Klark called down to her, assuring her it was okay to free the rope from her fingers as she free-fell from the awing height into their arms. Immediately, after a thanks and clutching a sick stomach, she ran to tell Margali.

"—And now he's gone! Somebody stole him!" her arms were waving frantically and only a truly loving intent-on-being-a-mother-in-law would quell her madness with a slap, which occurred shortly after the end of a spazzing explanation. Margali sighed and rooted around the living room area of her trailer, dragging over a small table with her crystal ball on it. "A crystal ball?" Mimi asked somewhat skeptically, raised to believe little occult things such as that didn't work…well, it didn't mean she followed the 'stamping out' of such possibilities as thoroughly and precisely as her father had, but it still seemed ridiculous to even try. Sending her a less than homely glare, Margali insistently sat behind the orb, waving her hands and chanting some unknown mantra until it clouded over; the mist parting to reveal two Kurt Wagners and one Mystique chatting brusquely in a very sulfurous and heated atmosphere. Mimi's eyes widened, shaking hands carefully closing around the orb as she tried to make sense of the scene…how could there be two Kurts if Mystique was in her normal form?

The fifteen kids playing unaware just outside her trailer, able to be heard through the always-open front door on account of a vigilant Margali, started to squeal and yammer excitedly. "A plane! A plane!" Margali and Mimi could all hear them shouting, squeaking in excitement in high-pitched voices. They exchanged a look and rushed out the door, seeing none other than the Blackbird touch down just like it had a mere day ago and spit out Storm wheeling Charles Xavier over to them.

"Mimi Hoppner…" it was the first true time she'd met the man behind the school and it sparked a nervous feeling of amazement within her. He smiled kindly at her, making her unsure hand—her body—relax a little as he gently shook the appendage. "My name is Charles Xavier, and we do need you to come with us. Kurt is in vast trouble and needs your help."

"Vhat is happening to him?"

"Essentially there's another part of Kurt created by his emotions and that part of him has gone quite fanatical at the moment. A part of Kurt is endangering the real Kurt."

"What can I do about that? He disappeared! I can't find him!"

"I realized this when I was tracking him with Cerebro but something inside Forge's lab picked him up." it was at this point a young man with a nice, natural tan ran frantically off the jet and avidly shook hands with Margali and Mimi, obviously worried. He was practically dancing in place, yearning to get back on the ship and run deep into his lab to help out his friend. "So we'd like you to come in and get Kurt for us. You've spent quite a lot of time with him, you see, so if he's insinuating anything dangerous to happen I figured you could pull him out of it before anything got too drastic."

"Okie doke, let's do it then! I don't want anything bad to happen to him…I hope it hasn't." She smiled brightly at Margali and gave the woman a big bear hug. "I'll send you a letter or something, maybe even come back, when we're all okay, alright? Don't worry; we'll be fine and dandy within the hour! I promise!" Margali managed a tiny, scared smile, despite the situation. Her smile broadened when the troop of curious children came to float and collect near her trailer stairs, smiling and waving the jet climbing in the air off to where it had came from.

* * *

"I vant to be taken out of here, immediately!" Kurt Wagner, the true Kurt Wagner, demanded, spitting at both his biological mother and the evil replica of sorts barring him from the machine that could make it so. He was afraid to teleport without it, too many questions keeping him from focusing on the trip home; like the current one that was pestering him: how was he staying here without dying or being automatically shuttled through like he was before Forge's gizmo slowed him down? Although it was unpleasant being trapped here with the evil-twin like emotion or whatever he was, and Mystique, he was thanking the Lord that he wasn't narrowly escaping the maws of the red dinosaur creatures or being burnt by lava, scorched by toxic sulfur.

"Really? But you have not seen the most vonderful thing ever! Your future…"

"My future?"

"Yes, you see…even though I'm a part of you, I used to be a 'you' from a different area entirely. One you von't find in a history book, I assure you, and it vas a magical time. I have ze ability to show you your future, in zese cauldrons, here." Mystique took the background for herself as the two Kurts, one being weary, one simply waiting as he stirred the two lightly with his tail. "You have a baby girl, here, in two years from now; perhaps three if you decide to vait. She looks like you, sadly, does not have as much of her mother as I vould like…" Nightcrawler pointed to the watery image of a little blue baby girl with honey eyes wrapped safely in a small white blanket, being rocked tenderly to sleep by an older Mimi. Kurt smiled, his fingers grazing the image as if it were tangible and not created of magic and surface tension. The possibility, the image, the future…it was all so beautiful.

"So vhat does this one represent? Vhy does it have Magneto in it, Mimi too…and Mystique?" Kurt Wagner felt his fur bristling. Something wasn't right. Nightcrawler smiled, making a half circle around the cauldron, peering into it.

"My future, after zis." Kurt's eyes hardened. What was that supposed to mean? His fur bristled again, seeing motions he recognized as a pre-meditated lunge. Just when he assumed a stance to defend himself, to not get thrown about, did a blinding light spark in the middle of the kitchen, temporarily blinding all of them. He felt something being thrown over his head, slamming into his chest and something getting strapped to the back of his head.

"Kurt, go!" Mimi? Where was she? The spots wouldn't leave his eyes and it hurt him—gave him a headache-like feeling—when he tried to open up his eyes and find her. There was a beeping coming from his chest and with icy horror settling in him did he place the sound. Forge must've made a second teleporting gizmo, a 'number two' of the one that had sent him to this in between location in the first place.

She was sending him back home! Kurt blindly reached out a hand, feeling a small and tepid one being clutched by his own as the bright light occurred again. He felt them wheeling insanely fast, through wind—through time it seemed—with the whistling deafening him as they careened back to safety. A splashing sound had eaten its way into his ears and he tried to block it out, feeling the safety of the Xavier Mansion embrace him with the audible exhales of his friends welcoming him home. In his right hand, where Mimi's small hand originally was, lay his right-hand glove, clutched tightly in his own numb grip. "Wh-where…?" Zeta couldn't bring herself to finish the question, either, much like everyone else in the room.

"Professor, ve need to find her, fast!" exclaimed Kurt, nervous and sick with fear. What was going to happen to her? How did she get left behind? Was she still in that god-awful place? "Cerebro can track humans, right?"

"Yes Kurt, it can. Please calm down; being frantic won't help solve anything." Xavier was already wheeling towards Cerebro, one of the first spots Kurt had happened upon when he'd first arrived, and Kurt was not far behind him. The telepath was having a little—okay a lot—of trouble trying to locate Mimi due to the fact he couldn't fully concentrate. Kurt was asking too many questions, too confused by the white dots representing the humans. Xavier gave an unheard mental sigh, sifting through all of these humans to find her would be quite the task. Finally, gently, he turned to Kurt, still connected to Cerebro, and managed a smile, "Kurt, why don't you get some rest? It's kind of late. I'll let you know as soon as I find her, I promise."

"But Profess-"

"Bed, Kurt. I promise I'll let you know the minute I find her."

* * *

Her head ached and her skull throbbed like a fleshy tympani. The spots were steal clearing from her vision as the Kurt Wagner she knew not to be her own loving boyfriend cautiously rolled her over with genteel care Mimi had no idea the other half, the imposter…whatever he was…contained as Mystique picked pieces of the girl's mauve hair from her fingers. "Life's a bitch, isn't it?" asked the blue-skinned mother with a soft, cynical smile as the last of the hairs fluttered to the ground. She somehow managed to roll her dizzy body to her stomach and struggled to stand, the grinning-innocently Nightcrawler wrapped his tail around her tiny waist and put her on her feet; making the world spin wildly like a top before her eyes. They weren't in the fiery, brimstone-full atmosphere with sulfur anymore, but—judging by the ache of her arms and back—something much more solid and void of marshmallow safeguards to keep her body in tender wholeness.

He'd dumped something on her right before Kurt finished grabbing her hand, and instead of fleeing back with him through that portal, the water-mix, gross-smelling stuff in the cauldron had dropped her here. Actually, Mystique had pulled her back by her hair as the Kurt-imposter dumped the liquid over the top of her head, and that had resulted in her being thrown to the floor quite painfully. "Where are we?" maybe it was because some of the purple potion stuff had gotten in her mouth and eyes, but her brain—her vision—wouldn't steady itself. Nightcrawler continued to press the inciting warm flesh into his left flank, smiling at the dazed and probably lightly drugged girl in his arms.

"A different realm…Ve see it fit to call it the 'Age of Apocalypse', mother and I." Nightcrawler guided her out to a window etched out of the stone wall that was otherwise bare and let her look down over the practically black and desolate streets. Few lights survived in this area, unless it was a sleepier time for the town…or whatever lay outside of this stone-made place she'd been brought to.

"Why do you call it 'Age of Apocalypse'?" Mimi was afraid to ask the question, but only part of her feared the response. The other half of her wanted to know with general intrigue.

"Zere is much violence, and bloodshed."

"My little Kurt is actually an assassin here, and a good one, so don't think of doing anything stupid." Mystique cut into the conversation with acerbic threats and her son's hand fluttered from the human's waist with an endearing smile aimed at the blue woman.

"Do not flatter me so in front of her, she vill run away and I vill be upset…" the mention of his assassin credibility seem like some hilarious joke. Mimi was officially afraid, mostly because she was sane and found nothing hilarious or charming about the fact an assassin had abducted her. Or that the assassin's bitchy mother had grabbed her by her hair and smacked the shit out of her by tossing her to the ground. He accepted the tray of food from the blue-skinned woman who immediately stalked away, unhappy and grumbling to herself as Nightcrawler—also known as Kurt Darkholme in this realm—presented her with one of the garlic bread-like slices to feed her. She turned her head away like a stubborn child; no way this crazy guy was getting off the hook, much less feeding her as if he were her lover!

Now it'd be cute if Kurt, her Kurt, did it…but him? No way. Mimi turned her nose up at him and made sure to glower fiercely at the piece of Kurt as she took a fork and ate a bit of the pasta before her instead. He sighed, displeased to say the least and persisted until she did take a bite. It was at that point the obsession manifested; she'd accepted something from him.

Her fate was sealed. He was keeping her here with him, where she belonged. No one, not even the worrying Kurt Wagner, would tear them apart…and if they did, there wouldn't be a point. If they did manage to get torn apart he'd simply be parting with a corpse.


	9. Endurance

**Three **Little** Words**

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**AN: **Thanks to **Morning-Sunset** for the review on chapter eight :] that made me smile when it hit my inbox. Ugh, sorry if there are a lot of errors, I'll come back and edit later but I've been up since two A.M thanks to my twin niece and nephew. Enjoy this :D. Currently has: **1 chapter left**, **243 hits and 114 visitors! **Italics indicate regular thought; bold italics represent an impression or interference with someone's regular thought process (basically another mental presence). "**Liebe**" is supposed to mean '**love**', I had to use an online translator since I don't know real German, or anyone who does, so sorry if that's incorrect, but that's what I was going for.

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Nine: **Endurance**

"SAY IT! Say you hate him!" Mystique was relentless in her torture, all to squeeze out those three words from Mimi's body. Just like yesterday the girl found her head aching horribly, but today her coarse lips were cracked with rasping breaths and the lightly fluttering exhale ignorantly combating the pain. She hadn't had water since she was dumped with a large wooden bucket to freeze silently against the stone floor where she'd slept last night in the embrace of her imposter Kurt; now she was just drying—practically melting—in the sun pouring from the cut window that cooked her alive (so it felt). Her head gave colossal 'boom's of pain as it hurt her to even think or try to comprehend with a simple starting day void of healthy nutrition; and the sun made her pain even worse as she gave all her energy to screwing her eyes shut from the incessant prying fingers of mesmerizing golden light before her. Never had she imagined such pain possible.

Mystique was intent on jarring her suspended body, playing with her like a cat does a toy bobbing with string. The chaffing thick cuffs were already making her wrists a slightly sickening tender that oozed lightly of the first traces of blood, and her physical form was constantly pushed into the wall behind her. Mimi was screaming on the inside, upset she couldn't stop the obvious racism of her own self as her limp body obeyed the laws of gravity and motion; returning to the foot that seemed to press a little harder each time. Kurt Darkholme finally 'BAMF 'ed into the room, one of his two precious sabers dripping with blood that seemed like a fake movie-used jelly prop in the sunlight. "Enough," he hissed angrily; Kurt Darkholme could hear her pained silence and practically smell the injuries on the air; her blood painted the floor in an unforgiving, inerasable way.

A sin burned into his brain, torturing his eyes.

"Leave, please. I do not need you here, mother. I vill make her say it myself." She crossed her arms angrily, murmuring that he'd gone soft on sight for this human and stomped out of the room after throwing the keys to her shackles to the floor. He'd been by her side for sixteen years, only partly manifested in another version of himself, and now—suddenly—she was obsolete? What a nice way to treat your mother…she made her way into the kitchen and glowered at the machine that had brought Kurt Wagner here, and began to claw at it. Destroy it, it was nothing but evil and had only caused this mother-son-separating chaos of fatal attraction.

The red light blinking on it, she took for a symbol that her tearing was working, and Mystique smiled. Soon there wouldn't be any trace of it left. Perhaps her Kurt could use it and forge something to give to Magneto as a gift…but that would probably turn into some sort of 'spare the human because I know you hate them' offering of peace and overlooking of the Hoppner child's presence. He was continuing to decline into a mush-brained fool status much like the shell she'd freed him from, and this displeased her; but hopefully his 'direct' method of coaxing those three words out of her would do some good. Only when the girl had abandoned everything she'd stocked so much faith in would she be putty in their hands; when that time had finally come, they would have their shell…their weapon. When the soul is truly crippled, truly broken, can the black magic manifest and contort the shell into a brand new, horrifying, permanent being fueled by the darkness within themselves and able to manipulate it.

At least…the subject in question could if given Magneto's new drug. She would—hopefully, seeing as how she wasn't planned to go anywhere—be the guinea pig for this experiment and what better way to gain consent by pointing out anything short of what they wanted was no longer attainable, futile, and worthless in comparison? The machine showed no further signs of being dismantled, or even distress at the architecture and Mystique frowned. True, it was foreign to her, but why was the little light still on? A bright light exploded from the allegedly dead—to Mystique's own assumption—machine and threw the woman back with the sheer force and intensity to blame.

"You vill pay for what you have done, Mystique!" the voice was so strong; so spurned in rage that she crept back faster than a spider fleeing for its life in the way of a killing agent. Something white-hot, luminescent and sheathed in an effervescent sense of holiness struck out first; both blinding her and sending fireworks of pain into her vision. Her ribs tingled, and the warm, sticky feeling of blood gathered in her hand. She was dying. There wasn't even enough time to scream for her Kurt as the sword bit in from the previous slash and extracted her soul with the brightly burning tip, the collected sin disappearing by a great wind as her essence—all she was—abandoned this realm.

There was no warning for the soon-to-be-engaged-in-combat duplicate of his as the limp body was jumped over by awkward, two-toed feet as the creature stalked along the vast stone house and its standing enigma of curious structural invention. Surprise was probably the lesser of two evils in this situation, considering what the young German mutant intended to do, but he wanted to see this _thing_—this piece of him—die before his own eyes. Here, he paused lightly and Kurt clutched his heart softly through his uniform. She really was an inspiration, Mimi was, and had this not happened he wouldn't have realized that he would be so obstinate as to try and move a mountain for her…only for her. Logan had told him such natural "primeval" instincts came from devotion, and such a thing was possible if you truly felt your bond was strong enough.

Kurt knew it was. She was his seelenfreund, his soul mate. Mimi was his lover. The thought of this being his new nature where she was concerned didn't make him recoil in reconsideration or fear, but swell doggedly in admiration of his own adaptation; he was abiding by the laws of man: nature must run its course. Today, it would, marking the new eternity of the beast within the Nightcrawler; the man inside Kurt Wagner.

* * *

Mimi was absolutely drained and burning all over from the sting of hunger and physical abuse. Her eyes went to the light pink rivulets escaping madly down the drain as it mingled with the clean, clear, and icy water dampening the stand-up shower that she sat in for lack of energy to stand. _Help me, God, please help me…I need help. Kurt, Professor X, Zeta! Please tell me someone knows I'm gone…that someone's coming to find me!_

_I don't think I can do this; I'm not strong enough to live through this. I can't be! I'm so tired. There's so much pain, and I never thought a human could feel this much hurt. Kill me, or save me, do what you will Lord, just do it fast._

Ebbing was her strength, and the energy it took to make her eyelids flicker felt like raw electricity tearing up her veins. She was running on E in the absolute worst way, down to her last thriving nerve screaming to keep continuing. The child had never endured something as this, and had never needed to force her body into survival mode…now it didn't seem possible, and every sense of pain that had happened to her came back like a boomerang with more attached to it for the ride. Her intelligence of the surrounding was like a tiny home surrounded by trees in the midst of a bad storm; power surging and fading without will as the exterior forces tested her, teasing intensely the chords of fear and relenting in her. A dollop of something (it bubbled, and went on smooth despite brushing the blackened, puss-yellow, red, and purple bruises) assumed to be a soap of sorts peeled her eyes open violently as her body went livid with the sting.

At least…on the inside; it gave her a negative incentive to keep her eyes open.

Then she remembered, somewhere inside the beaten, dehydrated structure of herself, that Kurt Darkholme was helping the exhausted body get clean. Mentally screaming in pain she forced her own legs up, feeling as if she were lugging hundreds of pounds of invisible cinderblock with her, as the yellow eyes got closer to the slick skin of her body. He was analyzing her, not in the sexual way (which he most certainly conveyed for her, that she could feel even when he thought she was in deep sleep the night before, his whispered wants and desires made her feel nauseated), but checking on the developing bruises and trying to blot them out with soothing relaxation and hygiene-related care, yet she couldn't help to horribly fanaticize that his eyes wouldn't leave the bareness of her body be…anything he could see she felt as if it wasn't hers anymore. The Darkholme son was thoroughly soaked, practically having to crouch and climb in to assist her when the hair washing came into play; the mortal before him wasn't even strong enough to lift her head anymore…the stones of the wall had done too much to her. "I'm not going to hurt you, liebe." his coo didn't deceive her but he went on washing anyway, finally standing up from his crouch to cut off the water as the last of her bodily suds went down the drain and shook off his damp feet before grabbing a nearby towel and gently twining it around her.

The press of his three-fingered hands against her made Mimi want to vomit; despite being clean and safely coddled like a temporary immunization from the colder parts of this stone-based house, the presence of his fingers roused the memories of all the wicked things he'd foolishly whispered into her ear. Plans, "a happy future" he called it. Her hell, but hopefully it wouldn't happen. It sickened her that he had to dress her; the feeling of his fuzzy fingers absolutely repulsing her as they clothed her. Tender care was appreciated, but with this psycho the simple pleasure of clothes felt like another beating; to make it worse he was _watching her_ as he continued to add the articles to her, as if he'd never seen such a thing before.

"You go to sleep, liebe, you need it." his hand brushed down her face softly, smirking as he tucked the blankets around her. Mimi's eyes flopped; the eyelids switching between open and closed as her eyes burned with grainy sleep deprivation and determination. He wouldn't win. She'd beat him…somehow. This grimy feeling of brokenness, nothingness, and fear wouldn't be hers…she'd fight it off of her own body before she accepted becoming his little amusement toy.

A cacophony of noise echoed from the distant reaches of the house and she saw a black eyebrow perk in amused inquiry. Even though she was positively sapped of strength, she couldn't help but notice he took the intrusion as a twisted game, and feared for whoever was on the receiving end. Of course, fear for herself only came after that thought. Quick teleporting announced his departure and return arrival as he smirked and straddled her. "Guess vhat?" he breathed excitedly onto her bruised lips, "your little friends are here." Kurt Darkholme's vivid pink tongue flicked across the shell of her ear with a tiny, crazy laugh. "Go say hello…" the syringe stuck firmly in her arm and he combed back her hair to watch the eyes widen better, smiling and licking his lips at the delectable and utter hopelessness marring her gorgeous face.

She truly was fantastic, and he, insane. "Go play, liebe." his tail set her upright as her body mechanically walked out of the bedroom; the empty syringe with the residue of a yellowish liquid and dots of red spinning between his fingers thoughtfully. "Humans are too easy to manipulate." He sighed contently, moseying out to see just what would unfold for the controlled girl.

* * *

Kurt clutched the phone until his knuckles when white and he felt various muscles being jabbed by his constriction of the communication device. School was almost over and he'd yet to hear a word from Professor Xavier on Mimi's location. They must know something by now! His heart leapt into his throat when the Professor answered and he felt his hands turn clammy. "H-hello Professor, it's me, Kurt! Have you found anything?"

"_Kurt, I know it's you." _He heard the Professor and placed his free hand on his stomach as if to keep it from twisting so into the knots killing him internally…he wished he could sound as relaxed and collected as he did right now. _"We did find her." _if he wasn't afraid of being made fun of, he'd faint right there on the spot and let the relief consume him. Sweet Jesus, thank you, but…was she okay? _"This is going to seem a bit odd, perhaps not too much, but she's still in that dimension you emerged out of yesterday. She's safe…for now. You're being taken out of school for today immediately. I want you to come home and grab some of the other X-Men to go and retrieve her, goodbye, Kurt." _no sooner had he been informed of his withdraw for today did someone in the front office page and request him. Not even thinking of the consequences, only worrying, Kurt teleported to an almost-there point and walked inside the office as calm as possible for his tense body and Storm ushered him out the door and into one of the various vehicles.

"It'll be okay Kurt." Storm patted his quivering hand as she drove reasonably to the Xavier mansion, despite the situation at hand, and parked before the teen teleported out of the car and into the depths of the house. Prototype two of Forge's gizmo was waiting on him and Forge quickly applied it. Other X-Men were waiting on him, and Kurt could only assume that either they'd broken the speed limit to arrive before him; or that they'd been notified and pulled out earlier than he had. That didn't make him angry, on the contrary it made him relieved…perhaps this means they had a strategy.

"Kitty, Scott, Logan." those were all he assumed were needed for a hasty retrieval and felt two of them (he wasn't looking so he didn't know who) slip their hands into his as the third selected simply grasped part of his clothing. Forge set the little machine for the amount of time Kurt knew it took to drift through the portal and reach the weird house. His only angering thought (besides the one directed at the Evil Kurt) was that they couldn't move faster due to the slowing down the machine created. They all had their comments about the realm but Kurt blocked them out as his feet finally touched down on the far end of the cold tunnel revealing the house. "Come on, in here!" the house was their halfway point, and unbeknownst to Kurt, Charles was delicately gleaning the coordinates from Mimi's distraught—poisoned—thoughts in the 'Age of Apocalypse' lifetime.

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_**Mimi…are you okay?**_

_Professor? Professor! You have to help me, please! I don't know how to get back and my whole body hurts! I want to go home, I don't feel safe and I—_

_**You have to relax, alright? It's the only way I can help you. Kurt and the others are on their way now to help you. Where are you? Just stay calm and talk to me, this will help them find you.**_

_It's a dark place at night, where I'm at right now is stone. Hard stone, it hurts if you get thrown into it. Right now the sun's going down so we've still got a little bit of daylight. I'm—I'm in his room…my body hurts so much. The shower was cold, and he's trying to make me go to sleep!_

_I don't want to! Don't let him get me to sleep!_

_**It's fine, I'm here, Mimi. Focus on my voice, it will keep you awake and him out of your mind—if he's a telepath at least.**_

There was a moment of silence and Charles felt mild fear. Why wasn't she talking back? What was wrong?

_Needle, needle, needle, needle, needle! _

The suddenly loud explosion of the single word made the telepath cringe. She was so afraid.

_He's got a needle! He's…_

_**He's what?**_

_Get them. Get them, kill them. They're here. They're not welcomed. Go play with your friends, liebe._

It was such a differentiation from what the others could describe of her personality that Charles was left to do something risky: assume. He hated to do so, but even the tone of her voice –sedated and calm—gave away that something wasn't alright where she was at. The girl could be in immense danger. There was another voice entering the link, one that sounded similar to Kurt's, but darker and colder. _This must be "Evil Kurt" invading her mind now, there must've been some of his blood mixed with the controlling agent…_Charles Xavier frowned deeply and hid his lips with a curled finger as he debated on telepathically waging war within Mimi's mind against the character, or protect her – both could be endangering to the human it concerned.

_Guess vhat? They're here! –Professor, professor! Help me!—go play with your friends, mein liebe._

_Hurt them, show zem that it is naughty to invade our house. Go say hello—I see them, they're not going away! Make them go away—to them._

_**Stop this instant! It isn't safe to be controlling her so, humans are more fragile! She's delicate in herself, I don't know how you did this if you're truly a part of Kurt but you must cease at once!**_

_She is fragile. I've accomplished this by magic, telepath. However, she is also mine—Kurt's walking up to me!—, and I vill do with her vhat—What do I do?—I wish. Wagner and his little friends won't hurt her—I can't stop myself—, zey are afraid to…you vill lose your little—Professor, please help. I don't want to hurt anyone!—pawns._

_**They're not pawns. They're people! These are people you're dealing with, and you're significantly—possibly extremely—hurting one! Of course, they won't hurt her, but they'll hurt you.**_

_Not if zey think she's connected to me, after all,—my body won't quit moving!—she is under my control._

_**You'll be sorry you ever did this. Kurt will make sure of it.**_

_If you vill excuse us—kill me, please—ve have playing to do. Don't we, liebe?_

_**Mimi, you can fight this. I know you can. Kurt knows you're not yourself. Fight it, no fear. You're safe among your friends. **_

_**You're safe. Fight him. You can win, just focus. Block him out, force him out. Push his essence out, counter him!**_

_**Forge is creating a portal to bring you all back, you'll be fine. Nothing bad is going to happen. Just focus. It'll be alright, all of it will. Focus.**_

_Kurt…_

Xavier gave a small smile, that little mouse-peep of a word wasn't controlled. Whatever Mimi was doing happened to be significantly throwing off the Evil Kurt's control. A power struggle was occurring, he could tell; and her winning way was small, shaky, but something kept pulsing—growing—reinforcing itself, and her body was shaking. Her physical body couldn't hold the tension gifted by her brain much longer, and if she collapsed before Evil Kurt was flushed out of her mind the results could be disastrous, especially to Kurt. They could very well loose Mimi entirely.

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Kurt paused; the sight of his shaking liebling was odd. Her limbs rattled as if someone was just focusing the force of a most powerful earthquake upon her. Having to watch it, and see the smiling thing behind her, Kurt felt sick. The three X-Men behind him didn't know whether to attack her, or the Evil Kurt. "P-P-P…" words she was trying to make were completely gone, only serving some sort of use to her as the Evil Kurt's brows furrowed and her turrets-like twitching motions concentrated into a fluttering at her temples, holding them.

"Hurt them, go ahead liebling. Play with your friends." his brows continued to furrow unhappily. She was not doing well, his little puppet. The girl's hands clenched harder at her skull and her eyes screwed shut, displaying some level of moral comprehension.

"Don't call her that!" Kurt Wagner jabbed a yellow-gloved thumb at him warningly. That was a word only _he _used with her. Their word. "She doesn't have to listen to you, and I'd stop right now unless you vant to not get up for a couple of centuries." the Evil Kurt laughed as he leaned intently against the wall, surprised to see the famous X-Men had this much restraint against someone they knew. He began to charge at them, knowing as long as he could teleport behind the human shield they couldn't harm him, and yet he could do all the damage he wanted.

"K-K-Kur…" unfortunately phasing through Kitty, which he didn't expect, Kurt Darkholme immediately swiveled to glare at his little puppet. How was she forcing him out so fast? Teleporting behind her his arms snaked around her and pressed his blue forehead to hers, concentrating, detailing, and trying to enforce the thoughts in her. He actually displayed physical pain, uttering a small cry as he stumbled away from her. The sharp slap across her face, an effort to break her waxing thoughts beating him out of her brain, spawned the reoccurrence of the wild rage again inside of Kurt.

It burned and clawed at him like it had before emerging in the shape of a sword called the Soul Sword used on Mystique, but this time he didn't grunt or try to contain the feeling. He wanted the Evil Kurt _dead_. Glowing iridescently and pure white despite his clenched blue hand, Kurt ran savagely at the Evil version of himself. The Evil Kurt had just been knocked into the stone wall by Cyclops and was currently swatting—rubbing—the dusty and crumbling debris of the wall from his eyes. He could dance inside, he truly could, the tip of his Soul Sword had punctured and sliced through the abdomen of his evil likeness in one swoop (probably all of his _Pirates of the Caribbean _practicing when he was alone) but the other was left standing—grinning—at him. "How?" Kurt's eyes narrowed and slightly the Soul Sword retracted from the inside of the other, revealing gooey wisps of black matter.

"You can't truly kill me," smiled the Evil Kurt as he whispered for only Nightcrawler to hear him, "I've broken a commandment, and that is one of the best sins."

"Vhat? Vhat sin did you break?" the grin made Kurt Wagner want to vomit.

"You shall have no other gods before Me."

"In vhat vay? You do not believe in God…"

"I've seen a goddess, though." His head nodded to the dazed and recovered Mimi getting assisted from the ground in dizzy stupor. Kurt Wagner thrust the Soul Sword back into the stomach of his dark emotion. Just to spite his more innocent half, the Evil Kurt purred darkly in his ear, "…and vhen I saw how nice she looked in my bed, the loveliness of her on my shower floor all wet, I definitely put her before the God you pray to like a weakling." The rage swelled within him again, Kurt withdrew the seemingly sacred Soul Sword and pierced him again through the heart. This time, he wavered, and more of the gummy black wisps of sinner's creation fled from him. He was shuddering and trying to shove the tip of the sword out of his body.

"Got you." Kurt Wagner actually smirked a smidgen of an evil smile.

"NO! KURT DON'T KILL HIM! YOU'LL BE JUST AS BAD!" Mimi, his sweet, loveable Mimi, tackled him from behind; accidentally lodging the tip of Kurt's Soul Sword into the wall so the mutant copy of himself was neatly speared. Kurt Wagner smiled broadly at her and immediately relieved his hands of the deadly object. As if sensing it was unneeded, the Soul Sword drifted back into Kurt's body and Mimi smiled; her mind not focused on her aching body as she embraced the adrenaline-drained German. His warm, loving, fuzzy hands returned the embrace and he beat down all of his worries, yearnings, and quelled himself as he nuzzled into her face. She was safe, everything was okay.

Mimi was in his arms, where she belonged. Forge opened the portal just as the Evil Kurt's claws ripped open the shoulder of Mimi's red tee from Hollister; the portal itself had a powerful sucking whirlwind that made Kurt, himself, think of Storm making the force that got them all home safely. This time, with Mimi actually in his arms Kurt smiled down at the lost liebling and blinked curiously at her with golden eyes. "Vhat made you finally break avay?" She smiled and tapped his nose, loving the feel of his silky-furry face between her fingers. Kurt smiled back, unable to help it, and teleported them to the secrecy of his room where he blessed her with all the sweet, lightly untamed, and unused kisses he hadn't been able to give her in what felt like forever.

"Our first kiss," her smile was so genteel and true Kurt felt himself melt, and wondered if a smile like that could even turn the evil part of him partly guilty and desiring reprieve from himself. "You know?" Mimi continued curiously, in case he didn't remember, "The one where you came out of nowhere on the street and just kissed me?"

"Ja, ze first good one." the doting hug and undying smile they shared made Kurt flood with happiness. Everything was back in place. Inhaling lightly, Kurt's face pressed against her stomach as he continued to slumber in the darkening night; his legs possessively wrapped around her, he soon opened up luminescent yellow eyes. Blood, he could smell blood. Her blood and he could most certainly taste it after the tentative lick to the bleeding shoulder; perhaps his slightly rough reunion had widened the wound?

"You're bleeding…" he whispered lightly, knowing full well she was asleep. Still, he bandaged it very cautious and carefully; taking at least ten or fifteen minutes so she wasn't wakened by the wrapping. He took the time to simply gaze over her, admiring the tough little non-X-Man as she slept. His hands ran gently along the right side of her face before he set his head delicately back under her left hand, balancing on an invisible field of black hair that he soon replaced by laying his head back down in its original spot. "I do have to say zat you are very strong, despite your appearance," Kurt whispered softly, like a lullaby. Blinking his tired eyes he held the hand pressed gingerly to the right side of his face, snuggling into it, "and I love you for ze inspiration you give me. I von't let you leave again…I don't think I'd survive I second time."


	10. Only Human

**Three **Little** Words**

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**AN: **THE LAST CHAPTER! **368 hits and 163 visitors to the last one.** Thank you, everyone, who's looked at this story. It means a lot. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you end up looking forward to a short five-chapter sequel. You have to read the whole story to find out the sequel title and further information. Do know that this is both the last chapter and the Epilogue. The Epilogue will have a differentiation from the chapter ten but it will all fall under accordingly to the chapter theme. BIG THANKS TO: **Morning-Sunset**. This was for you, it's had a good run, now it's complete and I hope it matched your likeness for the fuzzy blue elf :D. _**Please take the poll on my profile, it's very, very, very important. Thanks. It will seriously help and feel free to make any suggestions via PM, alright? I don't stick to just one genre :D. But PLEASE TAKE THE POLL!**_

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Ten: **Only Human**

The married couple was just reaching their fourth year of marriage which also marked the fourth year of their daughter's life. She was a gorgeous thing…petite like her mother, blue-furred like her father with his iridescent yellow eyes and a loud, spine-wringing screech that could wake a dead man. Her nightmares were getting worse, and a zombie-like Mimi slowly pulled herself to an upright sitting position seconds before indigo smoke coated the room from a small dispersing cloud as the child flew into her arms madly. Kurt gave a baritone groan and rolled over, peeling open burning, sleep-deprived yellow-amber orbs as he too sat up to quiet his daughter. An hour later little four-year-old Shade was safely asleep again; clutching the stomach of Mimi's white nightgown that only just grazed the mother's knees and billowed against her tiny frame as she carefully shifted to tuck her daughter beneath the safety of the sheets.

"She's having nightmares, again…" Kurt tenderly brushed a disarray darker indigo lock from tickling her nose as he softly pressed his head to the plush pillow and looked at his wife with worried eyes. "Vhat is wrong?" the genteel human hand caressing the side of his face made Kurt's eyelids flicker (it was already a task to stay awake after the third nightmare this week) in a tempting lull redirecting him to sleep. Almost.

"You know ever since Hank did the little test on her from the first nightmare we think she got it from my great-great-great-grandmother!"

"Ja. Who would've thought zat you had mutants in your family? And zat it skipped so many generations…" He smiled at the thought and remembered the day Hank showed them paper after paper of mutant lineage surviving through the first few branches of what would end up being the Hoppner family. Somewhere along the line—until Shade—the whole mutant gene had been repressed or just not strong enough to carry or develop. Now their little girl was inheriting some bizarre clairvoyant-like ability from ages ago, but this one was a little special. Little Shade would not only see part of what 'may' be the future (they wouldn't directly tell her if it was or wasn't, the child was left in the dark quite often yet it really was) but she would also attain a ghost-like form and wander about the scene to gather more sensual information. She could even hold conversations with people's images if they were placed strongly enough in the future of what was to be.

The three got up, trying to pretend like Shade didn't have another freak out (exactly as the child asked) at eight the next morning to resume a regular routine of good hygiene, breakfast, and a friendly game or two. It was the first time either Kurt or Mimi had seen this happen and it absolutely twisted their hearts to ribbons in fear when Shade started squealing as if she were being exorcised by a priest. Crayons, markers, paper, pencils—anything that could be successfully used as a projectile—were hurled at the east wall inches from the television and grand black cherry wood home theatre stand carved to hold the TV, surround sound, DVDs, anything miscellaneous as Shade clutched a barely but gently rounded Elvin-esk ear in pain. "Go away!" Tears streamed down her face like liquid nickel rivers that only overflowed until there was nothing left as her demands only escalated into inaudible squeals. Kurt cradled his daughter, whimpering and no longer throwing things as he wrenched the last crayon from her hand; shivering and staring at the dark purple etched finish of a crudely drawn cross along the wall where her invisible bull's eye had lain.

"Liebe," Kurt was in no way angry, only concerned as the child shied away with all her might from the drawing when he crouched and tried to understand her doings. "Vhat did you make such a pretty cross for?" She heard the smooth and silky tone calling her 'sweetie' but continued to cry and contort until she was left the last resort: teleporting out of her father's arms and into her mother's. Mimi was awe-struck and afraid at the sight of such a holy symbol after the tantrum. Shade had never exhibited a tantrum, and most certainly never drew on the walls like that…not so scared and shaken. "Honey," Nightcrawler tried again using his best and softest tone with the child finally drying up her tears with tiny fists, tail almost putting her mother's forearm in a vice grip, "I'm not mad liebling, I just vant to know vhat made you make a cross."

"H-He…" the child's body bloated with an inhale, her nose running slightly. Mimi cooed to the child and handed her a tissue, pressing the face shaped like hers into her bosom as she rocked her torso to the sides lightly. A swing, Shade loved swings, trapezes, anything of the sort, and the motion of such calmed her down. "He not like cross. It make him go." her usually yellow-green eyes were puffy and red rimmed. Usually happy and outgoing Shade reversed into being an introvert for the time being and refusing to let either of her parents out of her sight, hardly even a second lapsed where they couldn't be seen.

"Who goes, baby?" Mimi wiped the faint tear tracks away from her indigo skin and smiled sweetly, wrapping her lukewarm arms around the child digging her toes and fingernails into her body. "Crosses make who go away?"

"Him. He goes. I not like him. Bad. He's bad!" Shade's tail wrapped tightly as best it could around her mother's waist and she didn't let go. He would come for her if she did. She was the only one that could see him, after all. The Bad One was magic, just like her and daddy and Auntie Zeta and Unkie Logan; but not Mommy. Mommy wasn't magic like the rest of them and The Bad One knew it, so he was trying to catch her. The fingers combing through her hair made Shade relax a touch, even smile, as they all finally weaved out of the pandemonium and settled on the couch for a movie.

Needless to say, today was not an 'outside family fun' day. Mimi and Kurt sat there, holding and loving their little girl as she cemented herself between them. If Mimi or Kurt had to use the restroom she immediately grabbed the hand of the other parent and whined, cried, stomped, whatever she had to, to make the other parent wait silently by the door. Kurt and Mimi weren't mad at what most people would call outright childishness and outlandish rude behavior, however, because this was extremely out of the norm for Shade's actions. Something was wrong so they were just going to play it safe with their only child for the time being, let it all pass.

At first they thought her nightmares were occurring as a sign, a way, to show her powers were ever evolving—progressing—and she was just too young to deal with the sudden occurrence of the X gene in her blood. Then it kept reoccurring, becoming so often every week like it was now, that they would just sit and hold her. Hank, bless him, with all the evaluations he did, couldn't find anything unusual about it at all. Shade was trapped in her own world of horrors that no one else could see but her. The day was spent lying low, watching countless movies and trying to keep her from drawing crosses, angels, anything holy along the walls as she trembled relentlessly.

"Kurt…" Mimi pursed her lips as she climbed carefully into the bed, whispering low as she watched her husband snuggle happily against her pillow and bat his eyes at her playfully. "What if…what if she's seeing him?" the two parents grew quiet, thinking of that day as they held hands. Love had banished him, but his threat constantly bolted around their minds like an elk trying to outrun a predator lion.

"_You can't kill me."_ He remembered the smug joke that the darker half of him, so long ago disappeared into dark matter, flaunted without worry, even being stabbed didn't impede the glee. _"I'll never be dead, and then I'll return for mein goddess. Enjoy her vhile you can, Kurt Wagner." _It was impossible for Evil Kurt to win! He'd watched the part of himself erode away, and get stabbed twice by a probably-holy sword made of magic! White magic was always more powerful than black magic. Good guys always win, just like Errol Flynn did in his movies!

_The whole group had been chatting in Forge's lab, collected there to see just what was making the Institute lighting go crazy. They figured, 'hey, there's a lot of us, maybe we can help fix something?' because leaving Forge to take care of almost everything technology-related was absolute slavery with no break. He didn't mind though, bless his genius heart, and continued to tweak snipped bits of wire to see if he could stabilize the electricity flow. Mimi was ordered to stay away from the machine with her being five months pregnant and all, so she waited, shifting her baby-given weight from side to side as she wondered what everyone was doing huddled around the mess of wires. Suddenly, the air in the lab grew cold and the lights flickered worse than before; Kurt instinctively and cautiously made his way over to Mimi (he felt as though the room was booby-trapped) and held her hand, the woman's free hand resting on her stomach._

_A portal opened, and Mimi reminisced about the night Kurt asked her to the Sadie Hawkins dance in the guise of a girl. She smiled lightly, but that soft smile died like a snuffed candle when the distorted visage of a blue male they all knew too well retained only an outline, glowing eyes, and a voice whispering to them. "Kurt Wagner…ze rest of you, is nice to see me again, ja?" He laughed and the outline swiveled slowly, like he was on a track and turning to a slight degree so that the general 'face' area of the almost featureless but identified thing looked directly at Mimi. The woman felt nauseated, just as if she were experiencing the oh-so wonderful days of morning sickness once more. "Hello again, liebe…" his hand phased out of the portal just a fraction and was lost, chameleon-like among the surroundings but the darker part of her husband hissed and instantly retracted his hand at the sight of Kurt Wagner kissing her on the cheek._

_His fading upon reaching out meant he wasn't strong enough to hurt any of them. He was still weak and probably recollecting himself from the battle with Kurt, even now. The magic he could bend was inadequate and the form of negative emotions was at a loss. Quite hilarious to the good guys, not to him. Kurt Darkholme narrowed his pupil-less, virtually non-existent optics, flaring the utter and uncontaminated whites of his eyes as he blinked, contemplating._

_They'd figured out after piecing together Mimi's experiences between the Evil Kurt and alternate Mystique that three little words could literally send him into bouts of pain if he was close enough to the two of them. Only in Kurt and Mimi's presence would this little trick work: love. It burned him painfully, like he was getting exorcised out of his own flesh, writhing in pain and screeching in the best migraine-inducing tones ever heard. Three little words brought heaven or hell to him, and after what'd happened Kurt chose hell for the worst part of himself. Kurt Darkholme didn't even have to hear them say 'I love you' and the bond of their unity before God would send him back into the shadows of his hidey hole where he could otherwise not emerge out of._

_It was most amusing. The couple continued to whisper sweet nothings and hold hands before the creature as the portal hummed with a powder-soft strawberry red light of magic. "You think you're so cute, liebe, don't you?" He asked Mimi, the ghastly white eyes drilling into her soul as a smile she imagined to coat his lips would stretch with such a tone. He was playing games, and something—whatever it was—made her neck hairs stand on end, the baby inside of her kicked. "I'm coming very soon, liebe. And I can't vait until I get zere." instantly shorting, the portal dissolved and shrunk into nothing._

_Worried, Mimi clutched her husband's hand tightly and nibbled her lip, locking eyes with him. "Don't vorry," Kurt Wagner smiled at her, kissing her cheek, "Ve've seen zat he is not strong enough to hurt us. Ve vill be okay. I promise, liebe."_

"_Not yet, anyways…" Logan murmured bluntly, coolly, harshly without any condolence to the pregnant woman's state of mind or emotion as he crossed his arms over his chest. Kurt fired him a burning glare, rubbing his wife's back gently._

"_Nozing is going to happen, don't you worry!"_

"It shouldn't be possible, liebe. Do not worry…" Kurt roped an arm around her and smiled, nuzzling in to her shoulder.

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Since his last brief encounter with the X-Men and his shell outside of his house Kurt Darkholme had been thoroughly planning. He found out shortly after the daughter of his engel was born that she could sense him. Of course, as believed, children were temporarily (allegedly) ESP-endowed and tied the paranormal; this child was a true blue mutant (no pun intended on his part, he hated her). Her eyes locked on him by the time they could focus properly and process images, they _stayed_. Even though he disliked the child and used up fractions of his much-needed magic to freak her out to the brink of insanity he did have to admit scaring the girl right into her mother's arms was a sight for sore eyes.

A little less than four full years and she was still gorgeous. He still wanted her like some stubborn child. Somehow, he wasn't quite sure, their daughter learned of his dislike for churches and began to draw crosses at every point he'd put a portal to. It effectively barred him; her appearance did, because she reeked of the same vinegar-like adoration they shared for each other. She was like acid to him, but he scared her more, with his almost-facelessness and howling hisses…

"Alright baby doll," Mimi. Mimi, good god he could hear her. She sounded so _sweet_. He remembered the way her tender body quivered in the shower, so delicious. "Time for bed."

"Mama, no…I don't want to go to bed. Can I sleep with you and daddy?"

"Liebe," Kurt cut in, scooping up his daughter with one arm as she giggled and wrapped her tail around his strong, muscled arm. "You must sleep in your own bed, like big girl."

"But dad—"

"Liebling," his tone changed slightly. "Please? If you truly have nightmare zen you may come and sleep vith us. You have to know zese bad things are just that, bad little imaginings. No one vill really hurt you, liebe." She gave him her best pout and largest golden eyes. Kurt Darkholme wanted to vomit.

"Alright, daddy. I want Smunky! Mommy has to take me to bed…" She rubbed her tired little eyes and smiled up at her mother. Her small fists clutched her mother's new gown, a baby blue with a golden trim and smiled; waving goodnight to her father with her inherited tail. Kurt grinned and held up a finger, soon returning with handmade-by-Zeta skunk-monkey hybrid stuffed animal that Shade absolutely adored since it had landed in her hands. "I lo' you!" Shade clipped off her good night with a hand-invisible blown kiss and a large grin before being set down to sleep and seeing her ever-present and holy father turn the nightlight on. Smunky was hugged with fierce adoration and love as the two parents walked out of the room with the last kisses of goodnight, leaving the bright butter-eyed child to stare at the picture frame saying things like: _Family, love, strength, hope_ bordering the picture with hearts and flowers to show a two-year-old Shade waving at a camera sitting in her mother's lap, Kurt had the child's chubby cute legs propped up with his odd creature toes as he grinned and rested his head on Mimi's shoulder, waving slightly to the camera.

A perfect family. The girl's eyelids fell heavy as she saw Kurt's frame, his wild tail, finally leave the doorway. All was quiet and sweet with silence and loving security. Nothing could beat her family. Absolutely nothing in the span of her four-year-old mind could tear the family apart…Kurt poked his head back in as if he had telepathy (which were just his father senses) "Sleep, liebe. Goodnight."

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Epilogue – **The Sin Gatherer**

"Night daddy." Shade smiled at her father and Kurt Darkholme sank through the wall, not willing to waste any more of the traveling potion that he'd been brewing with his brief trips across the only two realms he had access to: his old Age of Apocalypse one and the brimstone-fire-heat realm between point A and B. He watched from his home the second simmering potion, only big enough for one vial serving, and scooped it, downing the ambrosia liquid as the tingles ran rampant throughout his body. Now he was tangible once more, temporarily impervious to their little love sickness. Time to own up to his old warning. He was all too excited, imagining how the mother looked in her best of night clothes, body finally matured by child-bearing…she would be perfect, even more radiant and goddess-apparent than before!

This potion was rare and could only be made every other couple of years due to how long it took one of the ingredients to grow so he had to use it wisely. He teleported as softly as possible into the almost pitch black foyer with blazing yellow eyes that called him out, creeping quietly along the ceiling as he listened and slowly worked his way around the foreign house. Kurt Darkholme never had enough of the other potion that opened up a temporary portal to appear in all rooms of the houses but he recognized a few like the living room, hallway to all the bedrooms, and Shade's room. Take out the brat first. Then the doting mommy would run to her child and BAMF!

No more mommy…not for a while.

Not until he got what he was after, at any rate…

Shade had a bad feeling, and her fur wouldn't quit bristling. Her stomach wouldn't quit wildly curling in the most horrendous way. It would have been a wonderful sensation, matching the thrill and beauty of flying from a trapeze had it not been tainted with fear. The smell of brimstone reached her nostrils somewhere in the depths of the dream slipping in to a nightmare and she cracked a sleepy mixed eye open. What she'd been fearing had finally happened and the scream ripped her throat only for a few seconds until he wrapped his tail around her tiny throat long enough to make her pass out, not kill her and certainly not enough to hurt her for long. Kurt Darkholme would feel extremely terrible if he killed her; Mimi would never look at him the same again.

That simply couldn't be done. Any good grace of Mimi's he could attain, he would. He heard only one light set of feet speeding down the hall and by the sound of them—as he suspected—Mimi came running to her child's aid. Darkholme could hear the real Kurt BAMFing around his house to find the cause of what made his daughter scream. Upon the sharp inhale of surprise Kurt Darkholme smiled brightly, teeth glittering in what was now a soft glow of a delicate lamp as the mother scooped up her twitching child just emerging from the slight dive into unconsciousness.

"You…" her voice trembled and Mimi hugged the groggy, waking Shade to her torso as Kurt Darkholme's tail swished excitedly in mentioned. She was afraid, and the fear was palatable…sweet. Succulent, like how she looked. The mother's hips had seemed to harden, he noticed, more defined, and her legs shapelier—toned—in their scissor-sexy appeal. "Get out of here," her lips curled back against her teeth in a growl, something he'd never seen on her but did find amusing, "get away from my kid, get out of my house."

"I vill…" Kurt Darkholme promised with a nod, crouching down with a soft smile aimed at the mother.

"Shade go find daddy, okay?"

"But mother no I—"

"Baby…go. Mommy knows what she's doing." Shade clutched her mother's nightgown and Kurt Darkholme watched the dip of the material. He still stood by what he said to Kurt Wagner the first time. She was someone he'd put over the man he hated…hated and feared. Churches were not his friend, not his sanctuary – but she was. Whether she wanted to be or not.

The child disappeared and Evil Kurt smiled at his prey again. Alone, peaches and cream in her skin tone, supple, soft. His. Kurt Darkholme caressed the swell of her bosom through the material, slowly twining his fingers around the cross Shade and Nightcrawler had glitter painter her for mother's day last year and he dared raise his eyes that had bounced between the floor and a triangle formation of her eyes, nose, chin, body, and back up to her eyes to smirk and rasp to her. "Are you still a woman of God?" Kurt Darkholme questioned, lapping lightly at her jaw line and nipping sharply.

"Of course." Mimi shoved him away. "Get away from me you freak!"

"I'm a freak?" He found that laughable. Kurt was the same as the man she'd married. Just…darker in nature. Most women, he saw through his shell, liked that. She did not, however, and he found that both amusing and tempting based on the fact she wasn't the same as the others.

"You, my dear," Kurt Darkholme smiled and poked her nose, taking her in his arms as the tingling feeling came back. It was time to go. "--Have sinned, and I am here to take avay ze sinners." Kurt Wagner burst in to the door, Shade clutching wildly to his baggy white tee.

"Tell me how!" Mimi screamed out angrily, bashing him as hard as she could, digging her nails into the undeterred man who simply smiled and bear-hugged her into fruitless wriggling movement.

"See him?" Kurt Darkholme pointed to Kurt Wagner. "You've done ze sin every time he's around and you don't even know it…" They disappeared, Mimi's head reeling with the teleporting trip and the heart-breaking, spine-shattering howl of Shade calling out to her, finding nothing. When her vision settled she'd actually been surprised to see the remodeled version of his private room. Decked and furnished in a heart-warming red with white as a trim and secondary color only to gold; he'd completely reversed from dark and gloomy to rich, classy, elegant, Persian/Sultan-styled and tempting. It wasn't working on Mimi, though, even though he brushed down her shoulders softly, as if removing lint from her before tucking her in for a goodnight.

"What's that for?" Mimi pointed to a heart-shaped perfume bottle cut of fine glass that twinkled like an obnoxious diamond with a golden spray nozzle. Kurt Darkholme smiled and settled in behind her, throwing an arm over her.

"Zat," he said as he turned off the lamp with a simple stretch over her, "is vhat you will fill up in order to go home."

"With what?" She snapped at him, already hating him despite the silky red satin and plush golden pillow beneath her head. He plucked the white layered coverings that hid the occupants of the lush bed from sight. Evil Kurt grinned, as if he'd been waiting a hundred years for her to ask. Forbidden, taken, he whispered slyly into her ear, a dark honey with just the touch of a fanged lisping rasp coming through. She shivered as his fingers danced along her skin, demonic nails catching in the folds of her elbow and latching there.

"Every dark little sin you can make."

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**Ending AN**: Watch for a special story depicting Mimi's time with Evil Kurt inside the new realm called _**Sins**_. The story will be exactly five chapters long and when the story is done read the title of each chapter in one sentence within the drop down menu and you will find the sin Evil Kurt realized was harbored in Mimi.


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